Dream Dictionary

A prisoner of your limitations, or a traveller of wider possibilities

Western science has in the past painted a picture for us that suggested nature and the universe is one vast impersonal and almost mechanical process. When you travel beyond the frontier of your own personality and contact the life that gives you existence, a completely different viewpoint emerges. What you find is the mysterious love that leads a crocodile mother to carry her babies in her mouth unharmed. You discover the wonder that drives birds to fly hundreds or thousands of miles to an exact location to mate again with their dedicated partner. You meet the indescribable beauty that lies behind a flower’s miracle of colour and intricacy. You meet the creative impulse of the universe that has woven your being throughout eternity. See Exploring Inner Space 

Within the meeting between yourself and Life lie all the other possibilities – the healing of your ills; the finding of a meaningful place in society and the world; the solving of problems; the discovery of creativity; peace, or the powers of self destruction that lead to awful depression and suicide. If any of that seems abstract, take a few moments to look at yourself. If you feel you are not totally connected with the processes of nature and this planet, consider this:

You are totally and inextricable a part of the wind and the rivers and the earth. Lucidity is a growing awareness of that. Lucidity is a greater awareness of the part you play in the scheme of things, and the personal attitudes, pains and conflicts that stand in the way.

We are often trapped by ourselves. Most of us interiorise our morals or beliefs into our dream life. In other words, we take as a truth that what is important outwardly is as important inwardly in our dreams and creative life. In other words, you are as upset by a dream as if it had actually happened in waking life.

But whenever we dream its images are not like real life, because a dream is nothing like outer life where things could hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen, so that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear; so, all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind. In the early days of moving pictures, a film was shown of a train coming fast toward them; the viewers all fled in terror, fearing the train would crush them. That is exactly the same response if you are terrified of any thing you dream of. See Masters of Nightmares

Such mistakes make us feel things that are ridiculous. This happens with the morals we live with, by and may be necessary in waking life, we try to make them fit to our much bigger and freer dream/inner life and that causes conflict because the two worlds are completely different. So in dreams about sex we do not have to live by the same small moral world often necessary in waking life.

See Martial Art of the Mind – Opening to Life – The Healing Experience –  A Huge Change Happening – Extending Your Awareness

AIDs

As can be seen from the examples below, most dreams are about anxiwty about having AIDs. So even if you dreamt of having AIDs it is probably a fear of it.

Example: I am playing with her juicy ****, but the cars never seem to come by. We go to look for a better place to watch the race (I carry her piggy back) and there is more sexual playing. I am really getting horny and still the race doesn’t start. I start thinking of getting a condom (I am afraid of AIDS) but I don’t know how to talk to her about this.

Example: Living with M. We are in a small house. There is an extremely sexy girl living with us. She and I want to have sex, but with M. there is is impossible. (I observe the girl have sex with at least one other person and know that she had it with still another). M. is watching me very closely. Later, I think it is probably good that I didn’t have sex with this girl as I could or probably would have gotten AIDS.

Example: But the woman might have had aids. For some moments all the assessment of her character went through my mind. Basically that having casual sex with me probably meant she would have casual sex with quite a few people. I worried that I might have caught aids.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What do I feel in the dream and is there signs of those feelings in my life?

Am I worried about catching the illness, and if so I should do something about it like using condoms.

What do I understand from my dream?

Using Processing Dreams can help.

Aardvark

Although it is a fairly harmless creature, living on ants, it is often seen to have magical powers by it native countrymen; said to enable people to pass through walls.

Useful questions and hints:

This is an animal, and like any animal probably links with traits within you, so see Animal

If you describe the animal as it is in your dream, how would you describe it? That is important as it is what the dream represents.

It could help if you imagine yourself as the animal and note what is felt.

Aardwolf

The aardwolf is a shy creature that is nocturnal and is not a threatening animal. So it cold seen as a friend in dreams.

Useful questions and hints:

This is an animal, and like any animal probably links with traits within you, so See Animal

If you describe the animal as it is in your dream, how would you describe it? That is important as it is what the dream represents.

It could help if you imagine yourself as the animal and note what is felt. What would you say as the animal?

Abacus

Has been used throughout the centuries as a calculating device, and so would represent problem solving or business of some sort.

Useful questions and hints:

What are you doing with the abacus, and does that give you a clue to the dream?

Are you facing a problem that you need to solve, and does the abacus represent that?

If so can you define what the problem is?

Abalone

This is like the mother of pearl, where colours are all the time shifting and changing. So it is like looking into the inner world of dreams, of intuition and touching the highest in us.

I was on a beach in somewhere like Ibiza. I met Danny, I knew that I didn’t have the money like him to live a different life, so I wondered what I could do. I saw a rock mound with water running through it. I then saw that ancient peoples had carved out some more of the rock and had inserted abalone shells around the running water creating a trough. as I looked on, I suddenly realised that this was an expression of the divine, and that I could live here and dedicate my life to the divine, thereby giving my life as much meaning if not more than Danny’s.

Useful questions and hints:

Have you at the time of the dream had any feelings about something to do with your inner life?

If you have can you say what they are and what you realise from them?

What was the action in the dream with the shell – holding it, glancing at it, using it in some way? Whatever it was can you gather any information from it? See Action in Dreams

Can you enter the dream to find its meaning? You can do this by using Acting on Your Dream.

Abandon Abandoned

There may be a fear of being left or losing someone, perhaps arising from an actual experience of loss in the past. You need to consider whether your feelings of abandonment are also feelings of dependence. But it depends what you have a given yourself to – if it is careless abandonment it could lead to careless results. If it is to your wholeness then it might mean a journey into yourself.

Nearly always such feelings offer opportunities to meet ones fears and learn greater independence. Difficulties surrounding this are often linked with what we frequently call love, but might, for greater clarity, be called dependence. For instance, if a partner leaves us and we experience great pain, much of that pain and anxiety comes about because we have depended upon our partner to supply, or help supply, such needs as money, a place to live, social standing, sexual satisfaction, a sense of being wanted, companionship and support in crises.

Dependence and need are often so closely intertwined it is difficult to really separate them. But I feel that life in us is constantly trying to move toward survival and independence. But being independent does not mean leaving a partner. But if the thought or feeling brings distress or difficult feelings it becomes suspect and might have links with childhood experiences. But an amazing sense and experience can flower from the freedom of true independence. It is more rewarding than simple independence, and with infinite possibility. Life could begin in an entirely new way. Relationships could be things of depth, variability, and beauty, once freed of the shackles of the eternal buzzing fears and pains. Because on the end none of us are totally independent – or totally alone unless we have shut ourselves up in a small and lifeless inner world. See Inner World Making

Example: For instance, if a partner leaves us and we experience great pain, much of that pain and anxiety comes about because we have depended upon our partner to supply, or help supply, such needs as money, a place to live, social standing, sexual satisfaction, a sense of being wanted, companionship and support in crises.

Perhaps the difference is found in awareness? As in if the co-operation on different levels between two (or more) people was a conscious choice. I have struggled a lot with this dependence on my partner in the past and have often questioned if I had made the right choice to walk this path with him. Now I dare to trust that I did.

Perhaps all needed is to add “TOO MUCH” as in …….because we have depended too much upon our partner…………….too much would then mean a dependence beyond the mutual agreed co-operation.

Although, as an adult, you might now be capable of gaining your needs, such powerful feelings of helplessness, anxiety or sense of abandonment, can be stimulated by any situation reminiscent of the childhood situation that first called them into play. Therefore, it can help to carefully look at your life situation to see what changes are producing these feelings. You also need to decide whether there is real cause for fear, or whether you are suffering anxiety due to past experience.

Example: I was in a very loving relationship in which I had developed powerful emotional links with D. We communicated many times each day while apart at work, etc. But one day there was no communication. I felt tremendous anxiety and emotional pain and shock, really frightened that she had dropped me. In fact she hadn’t, but my fears were very real and difficult to deal with. A real shock.

In a certain sense, the pain arising from abandonment, and feelings attending it, can arise from other losses, such as termination of employment or a baby or loss of status. This can be seen as a confrontation with one’s own internal poverty. If this can be accepted, then the situation becomes an opportunity to gradually transform old pains and dependencies. The roots of these frequently become revealed if we accept the pain as a signpost to its source and understanding. Awareness of the part such pain has played in your life is a tremendous means of transformation. See Self Observation

But because facing the enormous emotions that are locked up with feeling abandoned are difficult, sometimes it needs us to grow to greater strength to meet them.

In general the dream might link with a sense of how others, particularly our parents, felt about us while we were a child. This feeling of not being wanted may have become habitual. It may not be true that we were not wanted, but our feelings are saying it is. A sense of abandonment powerfully influences our relationships as an adult, and can lead to feelings of being unloved in the midst of what is really a happy and caring relationship; sometimes carries an element of self pity. The feeling if abandonment can represent big changes in your life such as leaving home, or travelling and living in another country, and so feeling abandoned by all ones friends and usual sources of support.

Dreaming of abandonment may also link with feeling life has no meaning or purpose. They may occur after going through sepa­ration or divorce, or even the death of a loved one, especially a parent or spouse.

Such dreams can reveal grief, anger, resentment and despair that has not been faced or dealt with. Meeting such feelings is a way meeting and working through these feelings and is important and may show emotional block­ages. See Life’s Little Secrets

If by a friend or relative: Suggests either anxiety about losing friendship, or of illness creating a loss. It can also suggest that you feel unloved and unwanted.

Being abandoned in the sense of allowing sexual and emotional liberty: Finding a new freedom; dropping usual social codes and unashamedly expressing ourselves.

An abandoned building, project etc: Something that you were involved in and had life for you at some time, but is now either in the past, or that you have withdrawn energy or enthusiasm from, or perhaps given up on.

Also: It can be an example of one of the functions of dreams, which is to release held back sexuality and emotion. See: alone; functions of dreams; hero/ine.

 Example: ‘My Mother asked me to go and buy some butter for her. A chain on my left leg prevented me from going very far. I look down the road and see my Mum, Dad and my four brothers in the back of a car. I wave and call and they drive right past me, going over the chain I am wearing on my leg.’ Lorraine. LBC.

Lorraine’s dream illustrates not only her feelings of being left out of family life, but also the chain on her leg shows her not fully independent. We often feel ‘abandoned’ while we are trying to become more independent.

Useful questions:

Is the feeling in the dream one I have often?

If I look backwards through my life, when did this feelings start?

Because this feeling might deeply influence the way you feel in a relationship, it is helpful to recognise the difference between the history of this feeling as it has played in your life, and what is actually real in your present relationship?

What or who have I abandoned or been abandoned by?

What are you seeking through being abandoned?

Are you gaining anything from it?

See Talking As  – Habits –  Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Abase

Do you feel you were abased or were you abasing others? It is important because it could show you either in an active or passive role. See Active and Passive.

Useful Questions and Hints:

In what situation in the dream did the feeling or action of the dream take place?

What does that situation describe about you?

Have you felt abased or doing the abasement in your life, if so can you change it? See Carry Forward.

Abattoir

Unpleasant feelings about death or illness, and maybe the denial of your instinctive urges. It can also mean the killing of finer feelings. Because it is about the killing of animals see Animals.

If you have difficult feelings about killing animals or eating meat, it can be about those feelings. After all we kill whatever we eat, but as we are all from the same family we are only giving to ourselves – though the way we did it might be questionable.

If carcasses: Something to do with death or the physical facts of life; may be a reference to your body or health. See: meat; butcher.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What feelings do I have that underlie the images of this dream?

Am I killing something in my nature or in others? If so what is it?

What do you feel about death – have you ever faced the feelings? See Death Dreams; Near Death Experiences.

See Levels (Brain) and Mammal Brain

Abaya

As an item of clothing you need to decide what you feel about it and what you would feel if you were wearing it.

Useful Questions and Hints:

It is useful to look up clothing to maybe clarify what your dream means – Clothes.

What were you doing with the abaya – wearing it, washing it, throwing it away? Each thing gives a different meaning. See Action in Dreams

Abbey

This can depict religious feelings, or the inner place of quiet. That is, those areas of feelings and thoughts that are quiet, strengthening, and inclined to consideration of the meaning of life.

Is the abbey ruined or in good order? If it is in ruins then it can represent memories; or even that your thoughts and feelings about traditional religion have now fallen into ruin. If so does that feel like growth or regret?

But personal feelings about religion may play a great part in what this dream means to you.

Anything connected with religion can indicate a variety of things, depending upon your own feelings about, and links with religion. Therefore the dream can suggest –

1) A social programme attempting to integrate as many individuals as possible into one cohesive group. The aim is to achieve a community with the same goals and beliefs, perhaps within a hierarchical structure.

2) When such an integrated group is formed, being a member of it can produce a positive sense of connection with others. If one disagrees with the goals and beliefs of such a group, the group can sometimes exert an enormous pressure to conform with their goals. This can lead to individual persecution, or conflict between the opposing groups or nations.

3) A system of beliefs and practices that are designed to enhance one’s relationship with oneself, with others, and with a greater whole. Such systems often have the underlying belief that the whole is greater than the part. They may therefore aim to help the individual recognise his or her connection with the whole, or even gain experience of it.

4) A means of dealing with personal and social anxieties, egocentric urges, the human sense of helplessness against the trials of life, in a positive or socially acceptable way.

5) An awareness of or a reconnection with the core of your being. You might call that core God, Life, Spirit, but as in the example below, it is the powerfully regenerative side of your inner life or feelings, thus your contact with LIFE itself; or it might be the world of experience you have created inwardly by your thoughts, meditation, actions.

6) The moral rules we make decisions from – such rules may at times kill much of our inner life; moral authority; our relationship with the community.

Example: ‘It was like an English Church with several great spires. The whole building seemed to be built in a white and gold design. The gold parts shimmered in the sun. I gazed at this wonderful sight for some time and felt such a wonderful feeling of upliftment, my tiredness gone.’ Johan E.

Example: ‘The priest was going to question and assault my friend in connection with some opinion he had offended the church with. I went to stand near him to give him moral support, and physical help if necessary. I hated seeing anybody degraded. The priest saw my move and sent three thug type men to shoulder me out. They surrounded me to knock me down. I went berserk and knocked them all over the place with kicks and punches.’ John P.

In the example John sees the dogmas of the church as an assault and degradation of human qualities of love and moral support. See: prayer; religion and dreams.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What was my actual response to the abbey, and what part does that response play in my life?

Do I have personal associations with an abbey? If so what are they?

Have I difficult feelings about religion? Can I put those feelings into words?

If I imagine myself as the physical structure of the building what do I feel? See Acting on Your Dream.

Abbot or Abbess

This can mean a meeting with your highest aspirations, or difficult feelings about any authority figure. See abbey.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What was the relationship with the abbot or abbess? See Relationship.

What feelings did I experience in the dream, and how do they relate to my waking life?

If it was an inspiring meeting what did I realise or gain from it?

Abdomen Abdominal

Your dream may be directly about your physical health or diet needs. If so it will in some way be connected with food or activities bringing illness or health.

Almost half the dreams on file that mention abdomen, belly or stomach, show the dreamer being shot, as in the example below. This is obviously to do with a particular type of hurt. When human beings learned to stand up, they exposed their vulnerable underbelly. If we are hurt or threatened we tense the pelvic and abdominal area. The sort of hurt referred to is that related to when we might be deeply criticised, feel badly wronged or slandered. This area often feels the pain of a broken relationship too.

So this might point to vulnerability, or the sort of hurt that results from being deeply criticised, badly wronged or slandered. This area often feels the pain of a broken relationship too.

Pleasure in this area show a sense of integration within yourself and with the world.  The solar plexus also links with hunger, the longing to be held, desire to give of yourself, or to be at the real or figurative breast. If these urges have been hurt, we tend to hold ourselves back from active social expression or intimacy in relationships.

We link the abdomen with ‘gut feelings’ or intuition; feeling reactions in a relationship. For instance we use such phrases as ‘you make me sick’ – ‘I can’t stomach what you’re doing’ – ‘you haven’t got the guts’ – ‘like being hit in the guts’ – ‘I’m really hungry for you’. See: solar plexus.

The opposite is to dream of waves of pleasure moving within us, which gives us a sense of integration within ourselves and with the world.

The solar plexus might also link with the potential of our fully active natural drives such as hunger; longing to be held; desire to give of oneself. If these are hurt, we tend to hold ourselves back from active social expression or intimacy in relationships.

The dream might point to gut feelings or intuition; feeling reactions in a relationship. For instance in the English language we use such phrases as you make me sick – I cant stomach what you’re doing – you haven’t got the guts like being hit in the guts – I’m really hungry for you.

Our abdomen is our digestive ability, both physically and psychologically. See absorb

Stomach or abdominal dreams may refer to some dis-ease in the actual organs. We might not be able to stomach something we have met in the everyday world. We may not be integrating our experience.

In a woman’s dream: May refer to her childbearing ability or pregnancy.

Shot in the belly: something to do with sex, a painful response to relationship, or feeling a target of someone’s verbal or emotional attack.

To vomit: A discharging of unpleasant feelings resulting from ingesting, hearing, reading, being told, experiencing, something unpleasant.

Example: The people watching are saying Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! Then someone finds an extra bullet, puts it in the gun and shoots me in the stomach. I wake with my body completely straight with my hands on my stomach. I feel my whole body cracking up inside. Vanessa. LBC

Vanessa wakes to just such tension, with a sense of her body being fragmented. In her dream Vanessa was re-enacting a disaster in which a man rampaged and shot down many people, and she was feeling the fear it engendered.

Here is a very interesting example of relating to such hurt.

I was getting ready to leave and this dark haired guy told me I couldn’t leave, I felt scared and was going to leave anyways, he pulled out a pistol and shot me in the stomach. I fell down, but there was no blood. The thoughts in my head was, “OH NO”. Next thing I remember is that I was still on the floor in the same place and I got up and I remembered being shot but I didn’t seem to have any pain or blood and was moving normally etc. I started looking for a way to leave I was sneaking around trying not to get noticed so that I could get out of there w/o the shooter guy seeing me.

The interesting thing is that even though she could see no hurt came from being shot, yet she was still scared of the guy with the shooter. And it is overcoming such fears that can release you from fears and hurts that haunt us. See What we Need to Remember About Dreaming.

Idioms: Belly aching; have a bellyful; eyes bigger than ones belly; have a strong stomach; turn ones stomach; butterflies in stomach.

Useful questions are:

What was happening in this area in terms of my feeling responses to people and events?

What was the feeling involved?

Was there pain or swelling that might indicate emotional wounds?

Might it have something to do with digesting new experiences in my life?

Is there a health or diet issue that is causing some concern?

See Body

Abduction

You may be feeling influenced by someone else against your own inclinations or desires. This can occur when events in life, such as leaving school or home, push you into changes you do not embrace with pleasure. Or it may be you feel a group of people you are involved with are forming a clique and pressurising you.

If a flying saucer is involved it shows and enormous amount of feelings and experiences are trying to surface from deep within you. They are shown as aliens because your present education and experiences are very different from what you are capable of and what you hold within you.

Happening to someone else: The desire to influence or have power over someone.

Happening to yourself: Feeling influenced by someone else against your own inclinations or desires. This can occur when events in life, such as leaving school or home, push you into changes you do not embrace with pleasure. Or it may be you feel a group of people you are involved with are forming a clique and pressurising you.

Abduction in connection with flying saucer: It can sometimes point to being sexually abused as a child. But some of the most intense research on such dreams or apparently real experiences suggest a powerful full surround virtual reality such as dreams create. They usually show an enormous break through into consciousness of unconscious material that had been repressed or denied . Everyday life and especially western social attitudes and beliefs make it difficult for the core life processes and feelings of connection with the cosmos to surface. When they press for acknowledgment it may feel like, or be presented as, an alien attack. This is because inner energy and awareness is often felt as alien to what one presently believes or knows.

See UFO’s – The Final Answer by David and Therese Barclay – Flying Saucers – A Modern Myth by Carl Jung.

Useful questions are:

If I identify with the alien how do I experience myself? (For help doing this see Stand in Role under peerdream work.

What new or strange experience is entering my life or trying to claim my attention?

Is there something within me or that I feel that I am feeling threatened or swept away by?

Ablaze

See: Fire.

Able

To be able suggests you have the qualities defined in the dream – for instance ‘I was able to face the monster that was frightening’ – ‘I was able to make love with a wonderful partner’ – ‘I felt confident and was able to land the job I wanted’.

And the opposite shows a need to develop the qualities needed.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What were the qualities that were shown or missing in the dream?

What did you achieve or fail to achieve?

By using the following you can arrive at a fuller insight into your dream – Processing Dreams.

Abnormal

Even if parts of your body or face are shown in a dream to be distorted or abnormal, such a dream is not usually referring to your body. This is about how you feel you are, or your idea or image of what sort of person you are. The dream translates the feelings into your body form. You might dream your face looks subnormal mentally, or your body has strange areas. This refers to an internal sense of yourself not having developed to your full potential, or of psychological hurts having distorted some facets of you, such as your ability to feel positive and creative. Nevertheless, occasionally dreams of this sort do point out illness, so if there is any cause for worry, it is best to go for a medical check. See: body; dwarf; giant

If something else in the dream is abnormal other than ones body: Feelings that there is a problem in some aspect of your life. Look up the object in the dictionary to check what it is.

Whether the abnormal feature in your dream is part of your body, of someone else’s body, or of the dream objects or surroundings, it suggests two things:

1) You may be harbouring fears about how other people see you – your self-image. Or the dream may reflect fears about your physical health. Even if these abnormalities appear on someone else, it may still refer to yourself, perhaps a part of you that has not developed to its full potential, or has been hurt. Our ability to love, for instance, can be hurt, and so may not have achieved its potential.

2) If the abnormality is part of the dream environment, it may point to feelings that something is not right, either with what is happening around you, or how you are responding to it.

If something else in the dream is abnormal other than ones body: Feelings that there is a problem in some aspect of your life. Look up the object in the dictionary to check what it is.

Useful questions are:

What did I feel when I looked at the abnormal features?

Do I feel something like that about myself sometimes or about my life situation?

Was there pain or swelling that might indicate emotional wounds?

Might it have something to do with ‘digesting’ new experiences in my life?

Is there a health or diet issue that is causing some concern?

What is it about myself or my life that I feel is distorted or not fully developed?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Life’s Little Secrets – Life Changes

Aboriginal Aborigine

In most dreams this refers to your more spontaneous feeling or instinctive or natural reactions to the things that happen to you. Often, like unbidden sexual or religious feelings, this side of your nature may be less conscious than your more daily or socialised reactions. The aboriginal may also represent your less rational or logical side, the part of you moved by feelings, magic, ritual, or ancient beliefs.

In some cases it depicts the side of yourself that may not have much chance to express in most social situations. But it is also the side of yourself that is closest to nature, with keener senses. It is more intuitive and less rational, and does not regard itself as distinct from the natural forces that produced you, or the other wild creatures of the earth. So at times this dream figure may enable you to see things more clearly, cutting away the social complications.

The aboriginal may also be a link to relating well to your own nature energy and motivations.

The modern western adult is often very much out of touch with the life giving processes within them and may feel isolated and often ill at ease in the world. The black figure in dreams, or the native, can give us a much needed connection and balance. It can also be an image of less sophisticated parts of you. See: African; Australian aboriginal dream beliefs.

Useful questions are:

Am I at odds with this natural part of myself?

Is there some love and understanding between us?

Is this being asking something of me?

What can I learn from this side of myself?

Does the primitive part of me need attention or is trying to grow? Use Talking As to understand more about this side of you.

Abort Aborting Abortion

In general this is about losing or getting rid of a part of you, or a project/idea, that was just developing and is therefore fragile. It can refer to a relationship that has not worked, or you feel will not work. It suggests one has aborted, or might abort or lose, an idea, a direction, or an area of one’s feelings such as might surround a love affair; an attempted relationship, direction or project is not supported by your own enthusiasm, love, energy or confidence.

The loss of something developing within you that you must decide whether you wanted it gone or whether you did not want to lose it. Or the feeling you will lose a creative idea, a direction, a project or an area of your feelings such as might surround a love affair; an attempted relationship, that is no longer supported by your own enthusiasm, love, energy or confidence

If you are a woman and pregnant, it may be revealing a fear of losing the child; or you may be exploring feelings to do with abortion; or even feeling something from the past.

The dream is seldom a prediction.

If the abortion is natural: Something your being is rejecting as unhealthy or unwholesome, or something you have been developing that has not worked out.

If dream connects with actual abortion: The emotions surrounding the actual experience of abortion; sense of guilt; the fears of damage to future possibility of childbearing; the feelings about loss of the baby. All these need to be healed in some measure.

Also: The body was in the midst of a process if the abortion was induced. The body has powerful feeling reactions which need acknowledgement, and are frequently presented in dreams. See: baby.

Example: I dreamt that my mum had a miscarriage. When I woke up I knew she had split with her current boyfriend. She rang up and I said, ‘Mum, don’t tell me, I know why you’ve rung, you’ve broken with your boyfriend’. She was amazed and asked how I knew. Antoinette T.

Antoinette’s dream shows how the dream uses abortion to depict the loss of a relationship.

Here is another example:

I woke up sweating this morning, I had a dream that my husband and I were in a car accident and something went wrong and my body was trying to reject the pregnancy ( I have never had a child, but 2 years ago I lost a baby due to miscarriage) and the doctors gave me an emergency C-section. The baby was a girl and extremely tiny, I felt very attached to this little girl, and she ended up dying of complications.

My reply to this woman was – Now the Big you has tremendous feelings and is involved in you as only it can understand. So in your dream your car accident represents what it felt like when your baby miscarried. Something had gone wrong that was why the miscarriage happened.

But you as a woman are a wonderful thing, and the Big you and the personal you are so intertwined, but you/we are usually unaware how much the Big you feels when a baby is lost. It has worked miracles to form this amazing thing – a baby. And to see it lost it felt badly. So you and the Big you were very attached, and the Big you more so as it had formed every cell of the baby.

So what you felt in the dream was a little of the crying for that loss for both of you. When a woman is open to her inner process of Life – the Big you – then she will try to heal her heart and her body of the loss. Mostly it is just swept under the carpet. But your dream is a way of healing. Meeting the feelings of the Big you can be scary because we are not taught that we have anything in us except blood and guts and so have no experience of knowing who we are.

Example: I had an abortion when I was 16 years old I was forced into it. My child would have been 6 years old by now. I been having dreams of this little girl and she keeps calling me mommy it simply breaks my heart. And all I do is cry. But what does it mean to have dreams like this?

Reply – There is so much people never learn from school, television and public opinion. Your child is not dead and of course she is communicated with you in your dreams. Your love for her keeps her alive, and please do not keep ‘breaking you heart’ because it puts a real burden on your growing inner child.

It would take me too long to answer your questions fully here, but if you click on the links you will get a lot of what you need to know. So see – Fertility – Summing Up – The Inner World – Talking with the dead

A friend wrote to me recently and was supporting abortion. My reply was, “I partly agree, but after abortion many women have difficulty having a baby, or the first baby is born with malformations. Examples are my wife’s’ sister whose baby was born with terrible problems. Also my father’s sisters – Roman Catholics were very keen on abortions and not having babies and all died of cancer of the womb.

You cannot really screw with the nature of women and get away totally free for we are all living creatures, and we are all born with a tremendous urge to have sex – in one way or another.

But here is something I experienced while working as a therapist. Linda had been sent by her doctor because she suffered depression. “The fourth and final session began with Linda lying on a blanket.

At this point neither of us understood what her movements meant, or what her inner of the LifeStream process was beginning to express. Because the movements were strong enough, and Linda could allow the spontaneous action easily now, I suggested she lay down instead of standing. We were using – LifeStream

The fourth and final session began with Linda lying on a blanket. Her arms quickly began the spontaneous movements to her abdomen without needing any priming by finding the tensions. The movements were much stronger this time and her whole body became involved. Her knees drew up and her abdominal area domed. She made very little sound – some people are extremely vocal – but she was intensely absorbed in the movements for nearly an hour before they stopped and she lay peacefully.She then sat up and told me excitably she had experienced something extraordinary.

She said that four years earlier she had been divorced and went to live in Spain with her children. While there she had an affair with a Spaniard and became pregnant. Because she already had children and was not wanting to stay with the man, she had an abortion.

During her body movements it had seemed to her as if the Life in her had said the abortion had hurt it. It then led her through the spontaneous movements to complete the process of birth of that baby, and in that way she now felt whole.

The process of birth which had been cut off had been able to complete itself. Abortion hurts the process that keeps us alive – and women who have abortions do not usually allow LifeStream to heal them by completing the birth process.

And what is so wrong in taking care and taking the pill – so why have an abortion instead of taking care? You must realise that the most powerful urge in us is to have sex, and it will override any objections, fears or restraints you have unless you are very string willed. But even strong restraint is harmful, for that energy has to go somewhere – often into neurotic behaviour or even worse. See Energy Sex and Dreams

Useful questions and hints are:

What have I lost that has been newly developing or emerging in my life?

Is this something I should try to regain?

Does healing need to take place around the feelings in the dream?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming –  Life’s Little Secrets

Above

This links with what you feel is superior or has a wider view of your life or possibility. It sometimes shows a sense of inferiority in relationship to what is above you. Or you might be looking at what you strive for and presently seems above you.

In many dreams what is high, or if you are in a high place, indicates you are experiencing the most refined side of yourself – those things that exist beyond body concerns and link you with universal awareness.

If you are standing above or high up: Having a wider viewpoint of your life or feeling superior or in a position of advantage. Sometimes this says that you are living in your head instead of your heart.

Idioms: Above all; above and beyond; above asking; above oneself; above board; above ones station; risen above oneself

See: height; hill; mountain; flying.

Idioms: Above all; above and beyond; above asking; above oneself; above board; above ones station; risen above oneself. ]

Useful questions are:

What are the abilities or achievements I feel good about? Find out by using Talking As.

What am I looking up to or reaching for?

What or who do I feel is above me?

Abroad

Your feelings about that country, or the view or associated feelings you have of it; being in or moving toward a new or changed life situation. For instance just being married might be a very different and new way of living, so be shown in a dream as a foreign country. Occasionally such dreams reveal things we absorbed or learned in connection with that country and its culture.

Being abroad, or mention of a country other than your home, in general is a way of depicting particular feelings or a situation you are in. For instance, if Italy is abroad for you, you might feel it is a warm and romantic place. It would therefore represent a situation in which you are feeling romance and warmth. But a country at war would represent conflict.

If you have not previously been to that country it could suggest exploring new interests, relationship or personal attitudes.

Are you travelling abroad in the dream to get away from a present difficulty or feelings?

So in most cases, abroad suggests a change, or a different feeling or life situation than you are presently in. The dream may be referring to the exploration of new interests, or new areas of yourself – or even of being in a situation you are not at home in.

If you have been to that country, the dream most likely refers to the events or emotions that occurred while you were there.

If the country is a place your family originated from, it may depict the unconscious influences and cultural attitudes you inherited from your family.

If you have lived and worked in that country: You need to define whether you were happy or stressed there and what you absorbed of the atmosphere while there, because the dream would be referring to this.

If abroad or going abroad: Making a change in your life, doing something new; wanting to escape your present environment; getting away from it all; moving into a new attitude.

If someone or something arrives from abroad: A change; something new arising in your life.

Someone of the opposite sex from abroad: Hopes for a new relationship; a relationship that has new features; difficulties with intimacy in present relationship.

See: travel – or specific country.

Useful questions are:

If you have lived in the dream country:

What was your overall experience of that place?

Were you happy there, lonely, what characteristics of the people did you take in?

What is your general view of the country and its people?

Am I or should I be exploring new interests, or new areas of myself?

Is there a situation in my life where I don’t ‘feel at home’?

Explore you dream by using Dream Processing.

Abscess

Painful and withheld emotions or memories. Occasionally it might represent a site of actual physical illness. Perhaps the abscess represents a situation in which old and painful experiences are coming to the surface to be dealt with.

The part of the body on which the abscess appears might give a clue to what part of yourself in terms of personality or abilities the dis-ease is felt.

Abscess still swollen and unrelieved: Emotions still repressed and may be causing psychological infection – influencing views and decisions negatively. The dream abscess may also represent a site of physical illness which may or may not be obvious while awake. In the example below, the abscess has released its pus, or painful feelings, perhaps through Hilary’s prolonged crying. The emotions are, with Hilary, affecting her ‘grasp’. She also uses other imaged word play in ‘near the knuckle’. Washing up shows her clearing away the influence of her ‘evening meal’ of experience. See: individuation; body dreams.

Example: ‘Was looking at my knuckle and saw that I had a nasty boil which had come away as I did the washing up and all that was left was a big hole, pink and healthy looking skin around. It felt very close to my knuckle bone. My lover had told me he was leaving me for good, and going back to his children. That evening, I cried most of the night.’ Hilary K.

Useful questions are:

What part of my body is this on, and am I aware of any problem in that area?

Are there painful past experiences, or irritating thoughts that may still be causing dis-ease in my life?

What does that part of my body represent psychologically? (Look it up in the rest of the dictionary, i.e. arm; legs; chest.)

Explore you dream by using Dream Processing.

Absence-Absent

If it is a person who is absent the meaning of the dream depends very much on what you feel in the dream, and what your relationship is with them. So you need to define what your response to the absence was – were you lonely, upset, glad, hoping for them to return?

Having defined what you felt, then ask yourself what they suggests in your waking life, or what part it is playing in what you are doing. Do you have a sense or worry the person is leaving you, or that there is a distance between you? This may also connect with feelings of being incomplete, as one might if an arm was missing.

If it is an object that is absent from where you expect it to be it suggests that your expectations are not matching reality, or that changes have occurred that you have missed observing.

If the object connects with another person, such as a ring, then it indicates feelings about a change in the relationship. This might simply be a change in the way you feel rather than a change in the other person.

Useful questions are:

Are these my feelings or do they reflect what is true externally?

What am I missing or in need of in my waking life?

Is there a waking event that stimulated this dream?

You can find out more by using these techniques Talking As; Processing Dreams;

Acting on my Dream. Also see What we need to Remember about Dreaming.

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Absorb Absorbed Absorbing

This suggests two separate qualities that merge into one. In a relationship, whether a feelings relationship or one in which you are learning something, you often absorb things from the person. You might take in such things unconsciously, as you did many things from parents and from the culture you were raised in. So the process of absorption in a dream may refer to such influences you are taking in.

Dreams often represent learning or personal growth as an organic process. Ideas and experience are taken in, digested, then form part of an organic whole in an integrated way. This is sometimes depicted much as a tree absorbs through its roots. What is absorbed becomes a living part of the organism. But that does not mean taking it in whole; it is broken down and only the parts that are usable are integrated into the life of the organism, the rest is discharged as waste matter and is later used as compost.

Seeing something absorbed in a dream may therefore represent the taking in of ideas or influences, or even poisonous feelings, depending upon what the dream images are.

The meaning of the dream does depend on the situation of the absorbing. So if your body is absorbing something, this may refer to something you are eating, or some influence in your life.

Being absorbed in something like water or energy suggest your personality opening to being a part of the wider life around you.

So being absorbed into something it suggests an enlarged experience of yourself, or a letting down your defensive barriers. It might also feel like being overwhelmed by another persons identity or another influence you do not identify with.

Useful questions are:

Does the dream give me a clue to what I am absorbing?

What do I feel in the dream, and what does this say about me?

What do I do, or what could I do, about the situation?

Try the following to help you clarify the dream Talking As.

Abstract

An abstract shape, patterns, or colour in your dream most likely refers to feelings you meet that are difficult to define, or even recognise. It is important therefore to define them from whatever feelings or responses they produce in the dream.

Useful questions are:

What do the colours or patterns remind me of or make me feel?

Do the images lead me to do anything in the dream or respond in any way?

If so what does it suggest?

Try the following to help you clarify the dream Talking As.

Abuele

Por supuesto que también podría ser una abuela mal – pero aún así son un reflejo de los dolores y maldad interior que puede llevar con nosotros a través de nuestra herencia familiar. Así que sea bueno o malo debemos honrarlos, porque sólo a través de ellos podemos encontrar camino de regreso a lo que está más allá de ellos en el pasado.

A veces, una abuela puede aparecer como un ángel, como lo es para un niño pequeño. Su toque y el amor es un vínculo con la antigua sabiduría que las abuelas tienen en su interior. Se puede llegar a través de ellos y cambiar su vida.

Tuve un sueño de mi abuela: entré en una casa muy luminosa, donde había niños pequeños tantos … parecía que estaba cuidando de ellos, que estaban jugando y riendo en el interior de la casa. Ella llevaba su vestido de flores favorito, mientras caminaba hacia ella le extendió los brazos y me ofreció un abrazo, así que fui a ella y como ella me abrazó me sentí la calidez y la felicidad, vi flores brillantes y el sol y las plantas en el brisa. Luego, en un instante todo se acabó. Me desperté, estaba de buen humor. Me preparé para el trabajo y como yo estaba en mi camino al trabajo, mi madre me llamó para decir feliz cumpleaños. Justo en ese momento me acordé del abrazo de mi abuela me dio esa misma mañana ….. lo que es una coincidencia que la misma sensación de calor. Como ya he compartido ese sueño con mi madre, los dos teníamos lágrimas de alegría.

See grandmother.

Abuse Abused Abusing

Abusing, being abused, or abusing, physically or sexually, may point to your own past experience. The dream may be an attempt to work out the inner damage you have about this. If not that, then there is a likelihood it is showing you some way you are either abusing someone else’s friendship, or are yourself being, or feeling, abused.

It is like aggression, and can be physical or very subtle, so can be passive-aggressive. Some times abuse, like aggression can be caused by held back sexual urges, or a means of passing on what you received in abuse as a child.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do I have any memories or feelings about being abused?

We sometimes abuse ourselves by damaging or repressing parts of our nature, so does the abuse point to this?

Am I in an abusive relationship or work situation?

It may  be useful to use Carry the Dream Forward; Using symbols to change life problems and Dream Yoga. Also see hostility; aggression.

Abyss Black Hole

Usually the abyss represents the unknown, and perhaps the infinite, of your own mind or consciousness. The fear of falling into the abyss represents your attempt to control your feelings and what emerges from within yourself. It also frequently refers to feelings about, or fear of, death. To quote from Dream Yoga, “Death is a fact that we all face, and it is no good running away from it in our dreams. That only makes it more scary. Because you CANNOT run away from death you should meet it face to face. If you do that it will transform into the beautiful part of life it is, instead of the horror we have been taught to see it as.”

The positive side of the dream is that it links your conscious mind with the immense potential you hold within yourself unconsciously. Part of this potential is an experience of going beyond opposites, of resolving paradoxes, of moving beyond the limitations of the rational mind and emotional responses. In these ways it is similar to the dream images of the Sea; void. It can also be thought of as the void or nothingness. This can be frightening until we realise that the void has everything in it, but it is without form. Another way of looking at it is that it is the polar opposite to waking consciousness – the deep dreamless sleep type of awareness. See Levels of the Mind in Sleeping. 

Falling into the big black hole:  Are things we avoid in waking life, but should not be avoided in dream life. Here is a dream of someone who is no longer afraid.

There was still a current trying to pull me back into the black hole hugeness, and I began to feel afraid as I felt that if I regressed any more I would cease to exist. Then it came to me that I regressed every day in this way when I went to sleep. I lose any sense of personal existence yet emerge none the worse the next day. But in sleep I regress to whatever lies beneath consciousness without being aware of it. The difference now was in being conscious of what was happening. So I knew the fear was unnecessary as every time we go to sleep we drop back into this condition.

So I let go and fell. I didn’t go to sleep though. Instead I fell into an awareness of immensity, of hugeness, and the immensity was full of knowing. Like a raindrop falling back into the ocean, I seemed to merge with that hugeness and yet maintain a sense of my own existence. And between the hugeness and my own sense of being there was communication. I was aware that what held me was the process that had grown me from being a tiny seed in the first place. It is so obvious, but I experienced it like a revelation that I had not created or grown myself. But now this deep part that had caused me to exist and grown me was unfolding me again, like a plant opening. I understood that we each have this force at our centre, and as I watched it working in my body and life, it seemed to communicate with me. I understood from it that if I opened to it each day, if I surrendered to its action, then it would grow me to a fuller life until it realised itself in me. This felt like a holy gift, that the mystery of life would live and know itself in me.

The hole is an important part of you and should not be ignored. If you can enter it you realise that it is the way to your own center and power. It is the hole described in Alice in the Wonderland.

The abyss in a dream gains its meaning largely from how you respond to it. It suggests a situation you might fall into or be lost in, but it is also space, infinity, a situation or state of mind not limited by form or smallness.

Sometimes the abyss is the same as a void, suggesting the formless spirit of life lying within and at the core of all physical formed life. Therefore it might link with the transcendental or the spiritual life of death.

Example: The first experience was looking at a green wall and seeing the huge moving circle of the mandala. At the centre of it was emptiness. Out of this nothingness poured forms of living creatures, all moving and dancing out from the centre in time with each other – though the individuals were not  aware of their synchronous movements. These emerging, dancing forms went out to a periphery – the edge of the circle – then they danced back to the centre and merged back into the nothingness. I knew this represented life and death and again life, for as things fell into that nothingness, at the same moment new life spewed out of it.

But holes can be like that at the base of the tree in the photo, can be an entrance into another experience or dimension,

If feared: Fear of losing control; loss of identity; fear of failure; meeting with those dark fears or worries we hide in our depths; lack of confidence; death in some form; the unconscious. Having these fears in no way suggests the external or internal world warrants anxiety. But lack of confidence will obviously hamper performance in dealing with the difficulties represented by the abyss.

Without fear: Being able to take risks, not be afraid of illness and death in a paralysing way. It suggests going beyond the boundaries of one’s own limitations, concepts, present experience. It represents the enormous personal potential lying beyond already formed conceptions and experience. It is the aspect of human consciousness existing beyond the opposites such as good and bad, right and wrong. Access to this gives tremendous liberation to the dreamer, freeing them from restricting rigid concepts or habits of thinking, responding and relating. See: death; falling; pit; void; archetype of the void.

Useful questions are:

Am I frightened of the abyss?

If so what is my fear about?

What does the abyss offer me if I enter into it?

What holds me back from it?

What have I found in meeting it?

Try Acting on my Dream.

Accelerator

Ability to govern your expression or expenditure of energy or speed of advance in work, a relationship or life. What you are doing with the accelerator shows the amount of power or ‘drive’ you are putting into what you are doing or where you are aiming to go in life.

If the car is not responding when the pedal is pressed it suggests you are out of energy, or that there is a problem with how you are motivating yourself.

If pressing down on accelerator: Desire to reach ones goal or desire quickly, or putting more effort or power into your resolve; frustration; ability or ‘drive’ to succeed.

Lack of response from accelerator: No inner enthusiasm for tasks or goals; a sense of getting no response from something you are involved in.

Useful Questions and Hints:

How is this depicting my desire to control things, or speed up things in my life?

How much am I depressing the pedal and how does that relate to where I am aiming to go?

If the car is not responding I need to ask myself why my emotion or body are not responding to this decision.

Explore your dream using Dream Processing.

Accept Accepted Accepting

To be willing to admit or receive what is represented in the dream. If somebody else if accepting something from you, then it is about feelings of being acceptable, or having something to give. See: giving; gift.

 An unwillingness to receive or accept what is offered or being offered needs to be explored. Acceptance is a great power that will open many doors in the inner or dream world. It is like allowing the Life Will to work through you. See The Life Will .

 Example: I woke this morning to a terrible smell. It was so strong I felt one of my cats had either peed or shit on the duvet. I was cautious about moving because it felt so near to my nose. The smell was slightly chemical in that it irritated my nose slightly. I slowly sat up – slow because of suffering vertigo and sitting up can be awful. So I slowly reached over and switched on the table light. Then I began searching for the awful mess that I was sure was causing the smell. But there was now no mess and no smell. I asked myself what was the cause of the smell and received the response it was the awful stink I had set up in my relationships with women. But there was no feelings or insights attached to it so I was left wondering.

 On then exploring the cause I was gradually shown the heap of shit I had been. Firstly my teenage years when I was depressed. Then my early twenties and thirties when I remembered my awful condition in not being able to meet peoples eyes and not even being able to wave to a friend who greeted me. And then the worse shit of all, the memory of having blood on my hands from killing someone – and the person I had killed was me, so I had walked around like the living dead, depressed, unable to make love to my wife, a zombie looking to others for life and love, a heap of shit.

But then I was shown the way out – admitting that I was a shit, and asking for help as the twelve steps in Alcoholics Anonymous define it. In opening myself to that wonderful otherness my heap of shit became a compost heap which offered new growth.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I willing to admit or receive whatever is being depicted?

What am I giving of myself?

What is involved in the relationship with whatever or whoever is giving or receiving?

See The Keyboard Condition – Life’s Little Secrets – Martial Art of the Mind

Accident Accidental Accidentally

In your dreams there are no accidents or chance events. In one way or another, you create the whole dream. Therefore to dream of an accident may mean you sense attitudes, or events, are leading you toward whatever is depicted in the dream. This is in no way a prophecy, but it might occasionally depict a self-fulfilling incident. In which case it is wise to be aware of any events suggesting what is portrayed in your dream. You can then avoid the final moves creating the accident.

The dream may also be showing feelings of stress or tension that could lead to events best for you to avoid. The event might be a relationship break-up, a work crisis, or whatever is suggested in a dream – or caused by a relationship or work break up.

Again, defuse the situation by being aware of the tensions or stress contributing to the dream accident. Deal with the stress of tension, and thus avoid its possible consequences. An accident in a dream may also suggest feelings of being out of control, or not being able control events occurring around you, perhaps heightening stress.

Sometimes this simply suggests the feelings it gives rise to, as shock or fear. Perhaps something has shocked and hurt you. Often dreams of upheaval are signs of great change that are or will occur, so learning to meet change is a necessary skill, and something we need all the time.

Many people have strong feelings of anxiety about any dream which shows them having an accident or being injured. If we could have a record of every dream each person had, we would see everyone dreams again and again of being injured, murdered, killed. Because these are common themes, some dreams are going to coincide with an actual accident or plane crash. Because these dreams are common themes, many dreamers attempt to link the dream with a later event. But such dreams are usually about psychological injury or anxiety. Nevertheless many people do have warning dreams.

Defuse the dream situation by using visualisation to change the dream imagery – see Acting in Your Dream. See: esp in dreams; warning dreams.

Accident at sea: Feelings of threat about relationship. Perhaps a sense there is a problem building up. See: First example under boat.

Accident in car: Tension about your efforts to ‘get somewhere’ or achieve your goals. Take care in driving for a few days. See: car.

Accident in the home: A sense that tension is building up in your home life. Occasionally this means you have unconsciously noticed something might cause an accident in the home. Therefore check whatever it is that produced the accident – i.e. is stair carpet loose if you dream of falling down stairs?

An accident to someone else: Could be hidden aggression, but consider what facet of yourself the person depicts and see how an accident links with that. See the entry on people to help with this.

Plane crash: Worries about a project such as business collapsing or not coping financially. See: Aeroplane.

Example: The other night I had a dream that my ex-boyfriend was killed in a car accident. I was mortified and became hysterical. I can only remember little bits of it now, but I do remember seeing him in his car, dead. I think I started crying in my sleep. I have been thinking a lot about him lately, before I had the dream. I’ve missed him so much and this worries me. A.R.E. dream.

The woman in the example had actually parted with her boyfriend. The dream is therefore most likely an expression of her deep feelings about losing him.

Idioms: Accidentally on purpose; chapter of accidents; a blessed accident.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I feeling stressed or tense about something?

Is there an attitude I have that could lead to some sort of accident or misfortune?

Is there something I am avoiding doing that is at the root of this dream – i.e. have you noticed the tires on your car are bald, or a piece of electrical equipment needs attention?

What are you worried about?

How can I change the dream imagery to defuse it? See Carry the Dream Forward.

Accordion

Like most musical instruments, it represents an expression of feelings, a coming into harmony or accord with things or with yourself. It shows some sort of self-expression.

It can, in some dreams, show the pleasure of being able to play. See: musical instruments.

Accounts or Accountant

Obviously to do with thoughts or concern over money. Whether it is about anxiety or insights depends upon what is portrayed in the dream; may also depict having to give an account of oneself, revealing the details of your actions or dealings with others. It can help to decide what the dream is about by using Processing Dreams.

Difficulty in balancing accounts: A sense of not having been honest or careful in your dealing with others or yourself; worries about money and surviving financially; not remembering events and activities clearly; an unresolved problem.

Accountant A pert of you that has a good business sense, although perhaps you could be more creative.

Argument with your accountant or the tax inspector This is probably a warning to remain in the black and not spend beyond your means.

Negative accounts or arguing with accountant: Worries about money or an inner warning to watch expenditure; a conflict relating to feelings about money or value.

Positive accounts or praise from accountant: You are moving to good fortune and are handling your business and money well – unless there is obvious money worries at the time of dream. In which case it might be a compensatory dream.

Idioms; Account for; an account to settle; be accountable for; by all accounts; call to account; doctor the accounts; of no account; on account; on no account; settle an account.

Useful questions are:

What does money represent for me?

If you have an accountant how do you relate to her or him?

How are you feeling about money at the moment?

Have you been honest in your dealings with others – this can be a big cause of money worries?

Accuse Accused Accusation Accuser

Feelings of guilt, or social or relationship difficulty. If you are the accuser, it may be showing feelings of being victimised or wronged. The feelings may be from the far past. But it can also be a way of avoiding being truthful.

Accusing someone else: Unconsciously feeling someone is not playing fair with you or you have a feeling you are not expressing to them; or self accusation about something you feel strongly about.

Being accused by someone: Feeling wrongly judged; feeling guilty about something; something you need to be aware of.

A lot of people’s dreams are like the following example, feeling wrongly accused, although some are obviously about accusing others.

Then she begins to get hysterical, accusing him of being untrue and doing her wrong. As her accusations get more hysterical and untrue and harsh, the entire tribe begins to see it is wrong. They walk away from her. She is now sobbing and screaming that she had been to the doctor’s this morning and got bad news. Finally she’s on the floor sobbing. Everyone has left the building except me.

It is a truth in psychology that we tend to blame anything on to others. To face up to the accusations is a very positive step.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Have I felt accused lately?

Am I holding back dealing with feelings about someone?

What is the accusation in the dream, and is there a link with my waking life?

Ace

A controlling factor in your life, or some vital point. Also, ambiguousness, as the ace can be high or low.

Ace of Hearts: Love and good relationship.

Ace of Diamonds: Financial good fortune.

Ace of Spades: Feeling of success in work.

Ace of Clubs: Wealth, health, love and happiness. A letter concerning money.

Idioms: Ace in the hole (a reserve).

Useful Questions and Hints:

To find out whether the ace is high or low, and what it means in your dream try Talking As.

Ache

Indicates where we may be holding back the energy relevant to that part of the body. A man who dreamt of an ache in his throat later discovered in therapy that he had been holding back emotions about his father who had died suddenly. On release he was able to say how much he loved his father. Look up part of body to see what the ache might relate to.An ache is a warning that all is not well. Perhaps some part of the body has been hard used, or your dream could be using your body symbolically .

An ache is a distress connected with wherever the ache appears in the dream. For instance an ache in the chest probably refers to heartache or unexpressed emotions, and therefore pain about relationship. See: Body for the various parts of the anatomy the ache may appear in the dream.

An ache can also show a problem in that are of the body that is not yet acute enough for you to be aware of it consciously. An ache can also suggest a longing for or about something, thus the idiom. Idioms: Heartache.

Example: I continually have a dream that I have an earache. The pain in my dream is excruciating, then I wake up and there is no earache. Any ideas? Could I be grinding my teeth to cause this problem. S.

When questioned S said she did have a slight problem with a tooth at the back of her jaw on the same side as the dream toothache. Such tooth problems can lead to ear infections. So they are worth taking notice of, an done should check out ones health in the area. See the example under Body.

In Chest: Withheld emotions.

Lower back: Sexual energy blocked.

Useful questions are:

Is this about a psychological ache I have or a physical problem?

Am I aching/longing for something – if so what is it? See: body; Arm; Legs; Head.

Does this connect with any ache or discomfort while I am awake?

If I imagine myself in the dream, what feelings or intuitions arise about the ache? See Dream Visualisation for help with this. Also Talking As.

Acid

The dream image of acid suggests there is something that has the power to eat away at your positive feelings. The image may point to fears, cynicism, or criticism as in an acid tongue. If you are the one using the acid, be aware of the power to hurt or damage that you hold. If the acid is in a particular setting, such as work or relationship, then it refers to difficult feelings in your everyday life. If possible trace the feeling in your dream to where it is occurring in your waking life.

Acid test means the test of real value, as gold will not corrode, but lesser metals will. Therefore corrosion denotes material, easily destroyed things. Something may be burning away at your feelings or confidence, perhaps guilt or anxiety; your own vitriolic attack on someone else; fear of getting ‘burnt’ or hurt.

Throwing acid on someone: Purposely hurting someone; putting them to the test by being hurtful.

Where acid refers to LSD, See: drugs; mind bomb; LSD hypnosis meditation

Idioms: Acid tongue; come the old acid (try to deceive); the acid test.

Useful questions are:

Is something eating away at my confidence, resolve or sense of well being?

Do I feel a difficult but cleansing action taking place?

Have I been deeply critical of someone else or even myself?

Do you feel something corrosive inside you?

Acknowledgement to the New Edition

The latest edition of my Dream Dictionary, the result of some fifty years’ experience of working with dreams and their interpretation, is in two parts: the comprehensive enlarged and revised Dream Dictionary itself, offering both short and longer dream interpretations, and an Encyclopedia of Dreams, Life and Human Mystery, encompassing a vast range of related topics. Used in tandem, the two parts offer an in depth study of dreams and the inner life.

This book has literally evolved through many lives. It started with the publication of my first dream book Do You Dream which appeared in 1972. That was my first attempt at a dream dictionary, and that went through another life in the book Dream Dictionary published by Optima in 1990. This was a massive enlargement and was the result of considerable experience and research. The enlargement was due to the thousands of dreams shared with me by countless people. So, many of the insights in that book would not have been possible. The dreams came from several different sources. The first major influx came from readers of The Daily Mail. Readers of She Magazine contributed some interesting dreams. The many people I have spoken to on LBC radio station in London have significantly helped, because I was able to talk over the dream with them. Then came an influx from viewers of Teletext on Channel Four. The ‘Dream On’ feature has helped me particularly regarding the dreams of teenagers, especially girls, whose dreams I had hardly any experience of previously. But I have to stress that it was not simply from the many dreams sent  to me, but the countless dreams I and other people explored – not interpreted. Exploration of dreams will be explained later.

The next big step came slowly as I added to an unpublished dream dictionary which later became the basis for the Hudson Dream Dictionary on cell phones – and then the iPhone version of the same. But a great learning experience came from the thousands of emails sent to me via DreamHawk.Com. And it is from those posts that I am now ready to enlarge my work further in this present edition.

My work at Atsitsa the holistic holiday community, on the Greek island of Skyros, where I taught groups of people how to explore their dreams, enabled me to experiment with a format which enables a peer group to support each other in dream-work. The outline on peer dream work describes this approach. Dina Glouberman, through her use of  ‘Visualisation And Life Choices’ showed a way of using questions to stimulate response from the unconscious, which I incorporated in the peer dream technique. It was a wonderful introduction to a further step in dream exploration – not interpretation, interpretation lack the personal experience of actually experiencing ones dreams.

My friendship and work with John Hodgson and all those involved in the ‘seed groups’ my wife Hyone and I led helped me define the approach described under using symbols to change habitual life problems, which is a new entry.

My thanks to Marcia Karp – psychodramatist extraordinary – who pointed out to me the way basic information in some entries was lost amongst the examples. I have remedied this. Thanks to Sarah Davison for suggesting I clarify the need to look for some entries under group headings. I have listed all such headings now in the addenda. Also to Dakota who has given so much inspiration and support.

Thanks also to Jacqueline Shenton, Chris Campbell, Ros Lynes and Brenda Blake, and loving thanks to all those whose names I have not mentioned who have been willing to be with me as I explored my own and their dreams.

I want to thank my son Neal, who through sharing so much of his inner life with me while I working on the revised Dream Dictionary, reminded me of some fundamental truths. His courage in experiencing the emotional impact and revelation of his dreams, in being willing to share what he met, tells me again that within each of us lies a radiance that enriches us if we can meet it; that this radiance constantly tries to show us how to become whole; that becoming whole may take strength, surrender and trust. There is an example of this here.

I am thankful to all of you who have used the book. I appreciate your support. My love and thanks to you all for helping me to create a life so full of interest, so full of your dreams and so rich in meetings with Life itself.

Acne

This may suggest you feel unclean, or that you feel others see you as unattractive or unlikable. There is a likelihood that you feel shy about social contacts and expressing yourself, or that you feel there are blemishes on your character as others see you.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do you have acne – if so what comments does this dream make about it?

Can you shift the dream images in any way to arrive at a more satisfying feeling?

What does this suggest about the image you have of yourself?

What ever you feel in the dream you can change it. Most dreams are the result of unconscious habits, you can become a different person by  using Dream Visualisation.

Use Dream Processing to find more insight.

Acorn

Considering that our being has emerged from the tiny combination of sperm and ovum, a huge growth has arisen from a tiny beginning. This potential is frequently represented by the acorn or a seed. Even when adult, there is still enormous potential remaining unexpressed. The acorn can also suggest synthesised experience, and because of its link with potential, depict opportunities.

Because the oak tree is often used as a symbol of strength or endurance the dream acorn might point to reserves of such strength. Other cultural associations are age, long lasting, eternity and mystery, as with the Druid connection with the oak tree.

Shakespeare writes “the oak not to be wind-shaken” suggesting strength in difficulties.

Seeing or picking up acorns: Suggests you are in a positive life situation in which you can make things happen successfully.

Unripe acorns: Warning against acting prematurely. Wait until your plans, ideas or abilities are mature, or the situation ‘ripe’.

See: oak under tree; tree; seed.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What potential or opportunity am I meeting at the moment?

Have I a seed, in the form of an idea or an opportunity, that I need to plant now?

Is there an inner strength I have but am not letting grow?

Explore the acorn by using Talking As.

Acoustics

An inner condition allowing you to either be clearly aware of delicate inner feelings, or disrupting your awareness, depending on dream circumstances.

Because sound is a factor, see sound.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Can I define what it is I am aware of and what that suggests about me?

Is there an element of great awareness here? If so what am I sensing?

How am I responding in the situation and can I connect that with waking life?

You can define more of the dream by using Dream Processing.

Acoustics

An inner condition allowing you to either be clearly aware of delicate inner feelings, or disrupting your awareness, depending on dream circumstances.

Useful questions are:

Can I define what it is I am aware of and what that suggests about me?

Is there an element of great awareness here?

If so what am I sensing?

How am I responding in the situation and can I connect that with waking life?

Acrobat Acrobatics

Depending upon the context in your dream, this suggests the ability to deal with challenging events skilfully. It may also suggest psychological agility or balance – or the opposite if the acrobat falls.

You might also be facing events that need a lot of skill to deal with, or are risky.

Useful questions are:

Am I attempting something that requires a lot of skill or risk at the moment?

Are there life situations in which I need to carefully balance my activities?

What did I feel in the dream that is relevant to my present life situation?

Acrophobia

This may represent an actual conscious fear, or symbolise the fear of falling. That is, you can fall from grace, fall from social favour, fall in other peoples opinions. Such fear often has a base of anxiety about losing control, or having control taken away.

But something found useful in practice is to actually visualise falling. See Fall into the Big Black Hole.

Useful questions are:

Am I frightened that if I am not in control of my life things will go haywire?

In what way might I lose my balance in life?

Am I dealing with the fear of death here?

How can I change the imagery and feelings in this dream?

Action Or Activities

What you are doing in your dream gives a good indication of what the central message of the dream is. If you are building for instance, then it suggest creating a new environment of life situation. Also, being active in your dream shows you doing something about what you are meeting in life. The opposite is a sort of passivity. So look up the keywords for what your action is – i.e. swimming, run

The energy you express during each day is an expression of life itself. It is the stuff of creation or destruction. So it can be a way you move toward satisfaction and well being, or toward self destruction and illness. therefore it is incredibly important to know how to use your energy in a way that brings satisfaction to yourself and others. This is not always easy, because some self-destructive urges or dispositions have been deeply etched into us by early childhood events and examples.

But as you lie sleeping, your dream actions reveal whether you are using your potential toward self-destructive behaviour, toward illness, or toward unfolding your possibilities and connection with others.

As an extreme example of this, a man dreamt he was watching someone who insisted on living in a small stable like room that was foul with his own faeces and urine. He wouldn’t go out or clean the room, and his clothes too were filthy. He wouldn’t be helped, but blamed his condition on anything and anyone but himself.

This dream was a turning point for the dreamer because it showed so clearly how he was making excuses for the attitudes of despair, of helplessness, of being disadvantaged, that he lived in all the time. Realising this he had a big internal clean-up of the feelings and thoughts he accepted as true.

Other common actions such as standing, running sitting, can have profound meaning in your dreams. For instance are you really standing in your life and expressing the positive and confident potential that you have? Are you running away from yourself in some way? Are you sitting waiting for life to happen, or are you up on the stage of your life expressing what is in you? And remember that there is always creative action. If you fought the establishment head on you might get knocked down – but a singer can do the same and be acclaimed.

The meaning depends entirely on what the action is, so it is helpful to get at the root of the action. For instance are you active or passive; are you creative or destructive; are you going somewhere or coming from somewhere? After defining the action go to the entry describing this. Suggestions are: active/passive; movements; positions; postures movements and body language; running; struggle.

Useful questions are:

What am I trying to achieve through my action?

Am I involved with someone else in this, and in what way?

What does this action express?

How does this involve me with anybody else?

Am I active or passive?

What feelings are involved in this?

Actions

The energy of your life is an expression of life itself. It is the stuff of creation or destruction. So it can be a way you move toward satisfaction and well being, or toward self destruction and illness. therefore it is incredibly important to know how to use your energy in a way that brings happiness to yourself and others. This is not always easy, because some self-destructive urges or dispositions have been deeply etched into us by early childhood events and examples.

But as you lie sleeping, your dream actions reveal whether you are using your potential toward self-destructive behaviour, toward illness, or toward unfolding your possibilities and connection with others.

As an extreme example of this, a man dreamt he was watching a man who insisted on living in a small stable like room that was foul with his own faeces and urine. He wouldn’t go out or clean the room, and his clothes too were filthy. He wouldn’t be helped, but blamed his condition on anything and anyone but himself.

This dream was a turning point for the dreamer because it showed so clearly how he was making excuses for the attitudes of despair, of helplessness, of being disadvantaged, that he had lived in all the time. Realising this he had a big internal clean-up of the feelings and thoughts he had accepted as true.

Other common actions such as standing, running sitting, can have profound meaning in your dreams. For instance are you really standing in your life and expressing the positive and confident potential that you have? Are you running away from yourself in some way? Are you sitting waiting for life to happen, or are you up on the stage of your life expressing what is in you? And remember that there is always creative action. If you fought the establishment head on you might get knocked down – but a singer can do the same and be acclaimed.

The meaning depends entirely on what the action is, so it is helpful to get at the root of the action. For instance are you active or passive; are you creative or destructive; are you going somewhere or coming from somewhere? After defining the action go to the entry describing this. Suggestions are: active/passive; movements; positions; postures movements and body language; running; struggle.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I trying to achieve through my action?

Am I involved with someone else in this, and in what way?

What does this action express?

How does this involve me with anybody else?

Am I active or passive?

What feelings are involved in this?

Is there a theme I am expressing.

Try Processing Dreams; Dream Visualisation and What do You bring to Your Dreams?

Active Passive

We are in a passive role when we are an inactive observer in our dream, we are all the time on the receiving end of dream action, or as in the example below, make no effort to move from discomfort. If this occurs frequently in our dreams, we are probably passive in our waking life also.

Example: ‘I was in a house that I lived in many years ago, how I got there I do not know, but I saw myself sitting in an ordinary chair just behind the closed front street door. It was very quiet, and I was afraid, but I did not make any effort to move.’ Ms J.

This habitual passivity can gradually be changed by such techniques as active imagination. It is our own emotions, fears and sexuality we are meeting in our dreams, so it is wise to take charge of ones inner feelings rather than be a victim. The following dream illustrates an active dreamer. See: Secrets of Power Dreaming – Active Imagination – processing dreams.

Example: ‘As I walked toward a house a number of demons or devils came at me menacingly, trying to stop me getting near the house. Although they made all the ghostly noises I wasn’t at all afraid of them. I felt they were a damned nuisance, and to show them I meant business I grabbed one and with my right hand I gripped its flesh and squeezed. It started to squeak in pain and I squeezed harder.’ Clive J.

Example: I am on holiday, standing outside the hotel, at which I am staying. The day is lovely, warm and sunny. Across the road and to the right there is an old white house with a low, stone bridge leading away from it into the country. I turn, enter the hotel, but when I get to my room find my luggage has been removed and the room occupied by strangers who seem completely unaware of the situation and of me. I then go to the dining room which is full of people eating, enjoying themselves – I know no one and am left standing in the doorway, watching.

In the last example the woman is extremely passive in her response to other people taking over her room. Because a dream offers so many possibilities the woman could easily throw the people out or acted in a more aggressive manner; for dreams are created by you emotions, fears and also your courage or lack of it, so fear creates fearful or passive dreams. So you Cannot be hurt or die in your dreams.

Remember that dreams are like a computer game in which you can kill or be killed – feel it all – and come out of it unhurt unless you are still frightened. Fear is a great creator of awful dreams and you need to fight back.

In the ancient view of dreams recorded in the Atharva Veda, being active, or even actively aggressive, was seen as a positive sign, even if one was injured or mutilated as a result of one’s active stance. Whereas if the dreamer passively accepted injury in a dream this was seen as a negative implication. This was because it was felt that the active or passive stance within the dreams indicated a similar disposition during waking life. As the active person is generally more successful, the dream sign of an active disposition was seen as fortunate.

We are psychically always on one side or the other—tiger or fawn, destroyer or destroyed, taker or giver, object or subject, active or passive, creator or created. Here is the dichotomy of our fall from the greater self of primitive psyche into the forms of reality, the division of self and other. All our lives we try to achieve a balance of these contradictory opposites, and whether in our egos we succeed or fail, every function claimed by the ego is balanced by its opposite in the subconscious. Only in the fusion of infancy, or of sexual orgasm, or in religious ecstasy do we escape the psychic wound of division. See Stuck in life – unable to move and Avoid Being Victims

There is another side to this disposition of action or passivity though, where passivity has a positive connotation. So this must not be forgotten in regard to dreams and dream work, or in fact in connection with everyday life. This aspect of passive/active is described well by P. W. Martin in his book Experiment In Depth (Routledge and Kegan Paul 1964). In talking about working with active imagination he says, ‘One must be actively passive – active in giving over the energy, passive in observing. The outstanding characteristic of the true vision is its complete autonomy.’ This is a very important issue, as without the ability to control one’s reaction to one’s inner life, much of it will remain unavailable. If one is stuck in being constantly controlling one’s thoughts and emotions, in being a sort of powerful ‘in charge’ sort of person, then ones spontaneous inner life may never be able to emerge. Thus an ability to become passive is essential. But Martin calls it passive-active because it is a consciously decided passivity rather than an unconscious habit.

This holds true even while one is asleep and dreaming. I learned this lesson while hunting as a young man. For hours I had walked through woodland looking for a quarry but without sign of a single creature. Tiring I stood against a tree eating a sandwich. Slowly and magically the forest came to life around me, creatures walking and flying nearby unafraid while I remained quiet.

This powerful control of ones own activity in an open and receptive state is the key to the doorway of the living ‘creatures’ and personalities of our dreams – to the unfolding of innate qualities that would not otherwise be able to break through the threshold of consciousness and become known. Without being able to become passive in the sense of not interfering, the spontaneous emergence of unconscious vision and content cannot occur. The examples given in active imagination and dreams shown how this is used in actually meeting unconscious content – alsp see Opening to Life.

Actor Actress Acting

If you are the actor/actress, you may be acting a role, not being your true self. This might also express a desire for public acclaim or notice. But if you have strong feelings/ideas about the character of the person, then your dream image may be using them to represent those feelings or ideas or themes.

Depending on context, can represent yourself wanting public acclaim, or not expressing real self – acting a role. Just as someone’s life may be ‘acted out’ on stage or in a film, so actors may represent a showing of facets of your own life, especially inner life; the false image we may be expressing; our attempt to impress others, or act a part; ones inflated opinion of oneself. In some dreams when we see ourselves on the stage, or are watching a film or show, it denotes the examination or contemplating of some special situation in ones life.

Every night you create a new drama. You conjure out of your own being the people, the creatures, the surroundings of your dream. Then you give life to what you create – not only life but purpose and drama. You are a supreme dramatist, playwright, actor and actress. You are the great Creator – in your dreams. Considering this, have you ever wondered why that enormous creativity does not flow into your waking life? You can see that some people have that creativity and are enriched by it personally and financially. Why not you?

The many charcters and the scary or wonderful drama are all your own creation – and yet you might see yourself as having no creative ideas. Wake to the fact that you are a supreme dramatist, playwright, actor and actress. You are the great Creator. See: Examples below.

Idioms: Act a part; act on impulse or information; acting up; caught in the act; as the actress said to the bishop; get in on the act. See: theatre.

Example: Dark man on stage holding a reclining woman in the air. Woman dressed in long dress with a low neck line. Large silver cross round her neck. Man in evening dress, streams of blood coming from his arms like jets. Places woman down on stage. Woman gets into a cab outside hotel, man at the wheel but doesn’t see his face. She sits in the back of the cab, suddenly the sides of the seats close in around her. The cab driver takes off a rubber mask and it is the man of the stage scene, but the woman in the cab is me? Mrs. L L.

This dream of Mrs L. L. very clearly shows how the dreamer is watching on stage something relating to herself.

Example: When I looked at the film it was a carnival going on in the street, people with gay clothing and crowds watching. Two girls were going to sit in an old model type car, but someone said it would be better if they sat on the back of the car as they could been seen in the parade. Then I was looking into the crowd to find me and it was like looking at a snapshot, it felt very important that I find me, I saw my green slacks just showing, right at the back of the crowd. H. K.

Here the main feature in the dream is the effort to ‘find me’. So the dreamer is watching the film in order to clarify their own self image, or find out who they are and how they relate to other people – the crowd. See: Creating a New You; Stage; Roles.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is being acted and how does that apply to my life at the moment?

Is a special life situation being explored here that is important to me?

Am I acting out an old pattern of behaviour, or is something new being expressed in this dream?

It might be helpful to read What do You bring to Your Dreams?; Acting on Your Dream; Being the Person or Thing

Acupuncture Acupuncturist

Giving or receiving some form of healing, or redirection of energies. This may also represent the barbs some people stick into you through their words or deeds.

This might also refer to an awareness of where your emotional and physical energy is blocked or being released – or how to release.

The acupuncturist as a person may represent the self-healing process in yourself, or even introverted anger or pain. But this depends on your personal feelings about acupuncture, and your relationship with an acupuncturist.

The dream may be about learning to better direct your own energy. The acupuncturist is a representation of your own ability to heal and understand your inner condition.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is being deal with in this dream and how does that apply to me?

Can I learn from what is happening in the dream?

Is there something I would like to have happened in the dream?

It would help if you used Processing Dreams.

Ad-Advert

A desire to have others know something about yourself, or a way of bringing something to your attention; recognition of a need or opportunity.

Advertisement for a job: Desire for change; hope of something new; desire to find more satisfaction; recognition of opportunity. There may also be questions of desire, needs or choices connected with this. Considering what the rest of the dream portrays, and any feelings involved, will define this.

Advertising a project, a product or yourself in some way: Probably a desire to have others recognise your needs or talent. Advertising can be a costly way to do it.

Example: I was fed up. I said to my husband, ?Let’s take a holiday, just the two of us, get away from it all. I saw an advert in a newspaper for a log cabin, very secluded. We took it. On our arrival I was overjoyed. It was so neat and tidy, but very plain. The large bedroom had a double bed and a single by the wall. the sun was shining really brightly through the window. J. M.

Here the advert appears to represent the recognition of a personal need – to have time alone with her husband – and the opportunity to do so.

Useful questions are:

Is this bringing something to my awareness or that I need to pay attention to?

What new opportunities or situations am I seeking or hoping for?

Am I feeling my way to a new direction or activity?

See What we Need to Remember about Dreaming.

Adam and Eve

Depending upon situations in the dream it can suggest you are touching the feeling of wonderful simplicity and harmony; or there is a temptation or guilt regarding a relationship with the opposite sex. Basically boy-girl stuff.

Adam can represent your father. He can depict innocent unconscious drives. So in this sense Adam and Eve represent childhood, prior to self awareness and self-will. Because of associations we may have with the story of temptation, the image of Adam and Eve could also refer to sexual desire and your way of dealing it.

Adam Unconscious and therefore innocent drives and responses to the world. The basic level of personal development or consciousness. Some dreams may express a more archetypal aspect of Adam, in which he represents the fundamental formative forces in nature and in ourselves, that have led to human existence, and therefore to our personal life. In this sense Adam would represent the formative forces within that lead to the development of your self awareness and sense of identity. Looking at this in terms of your personal experience and growth, you started life as a baby. As such your state of being was not as complex as it became as an adult. This simpler level of being was the basic stage of your growth of personal awareness or personality, and still underlies it. This condition of awareness, one without guilt or a sense of time, or even any awareness of independent existence, is represented by the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. We emerged by the development of self awareness and all that goes with it.

Eve Because of the particular way Genesis has been translated, Eve is often associated with innocence, but also the offering of temptation. In our dreams she may depict the basic human urges and state of being, largely unconscious, such as we mean when we use the phrase the innocence of childhood.

Eve’s more archetypal meaning is independent will and sexuality. Even within the simplistic view of the story in Genesis, Adam came first, and simply went along with the way things were. Eve expressed initiative, and therefore became the first human individual with separated identity.

So Eve can depict the power of sensual seduction. She can also represent a man’s wife; or in another sense his emotional sexual relationships with her. For a woman she can represent the wonderful innocent but potent longing for sexual contact, and its expression as signals of desire to a man.

Eve originally depicted independent will power, or having individual existence within the group or a relationship, which through the ability to choose or make a personal decision, brought about self-con­sciousness, or individuality. Before Eve, or will power, humans lived in harmony with their instinctive drives, but did so because they had no will of their own. This is why Eve can represent temptation, and through will you can make a decision. So she also represents decision. See: individuation; snakes

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I feeling conflict or temptation about a relationship?

As a woman – am I becoming aware of deeper issues regarding womanhood?

As a man – am I becoming aware of deeper issues regarding manhood?

Do I feel I have lost something – the wonder of innocence and childhood for instance?

It would be good to explore your own associations with Adam or Eve using Talking As or Processing Dreams.

Adder

Is not usually a dangerous snake, thought it can poison you. So like any snake it can represent danger, and often your own poisonous emotions. See Snake

Addict Addicted Addiction

Something or someone may be influencing you in a way that undermines your ability to make choices. There may also be a connection with powerful emotional or economic dependence. These activities or influences are not arising from your will or responsibility, but from the emotions and fears, symbolised by that to which you are addicted in your dream. One can be addicted to a relationship, or to work. Your dream may be commenting on such a situation. If so, it is wise to consider how to move toward greater independence.

Perhaps there is an indication of fearing loss of control in regard to something or someone.

The dream may actually refer to a drug you are using and being warned about in your dream. Sometimes the fear of something is the power which actually dominates us – not the thing itself. Each of us have areas dominated by such fears or feelings, and the dream action will point to what they are. To dream of an addict who is other than oneself will still point to some issue about addiction in oneself. See Obsession.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What in my life might be overpowering my freedom of choice?

Am I in a relationship that is influencing me negatively?

Is there addictive behaviour I am not admitting to?

Use Processing Dreams to help with this dream.

Address

This represents your present life situation and all it links to. It also may depict the way you live and what you feel about your way of life, your living area, and the locality of it. It therefore indicates feelings about your present style of life.

Another person’s address: The condition or life situation of the person as it applies to you. You will need to look for clues as to what your dream is telling you about this. It might be suggesting contact.

New address: A change; – or hopes for or fear of a change.

Past address: The person you were, the traits you developed, what you faced in life at that time.

To forget or lose your address: To lose sight of your goals or standards in life, or who you are. This suggests a loss of connection with, or a break down of, the feelings and motivations that usually give you purpose and drive. Thus one would experience a sort of confusion about ‘where you live’ i.e. your place in life and connection with others. See: house; home.

Useful questions:

What address is this…home, work…someone else’s address?

Does the situation or quality of the address describe something in my own life?

If I said I was going home, what situation would I be going home to – happiness; loneliness?

What is the quality of the locality in which I live, and what do I feel about it?

Adhesive

See Glue

Adjacent – Adjoining

This suggests a strong connection with the dreamer, or what is wanted or being worked toward. For instance in Japan, rocks or trees that are close together are sometimes seen as married or linked. Dreams use the same sort of symbology to suggest a more than surface connection with someone or some aspect of life. There could also be the suggestion of confrontation or discovery – being near something in this case meaning that we can no longer escape meeting it, or it is near at hand in the sense of being discovered or experienced. The example below shows adjacent as depicting difficult feelings near at hand that the dreamer meets.

Example: I had a dream in which my best friend, her 4-year-old daughter, and myself were staying in this huge old, Victorian style house. My friend put her daughter to bed in another room, and we went in the adjoining room to watch a movie. My friend fell asleep and then all of the sudden, her daughter came screaming into the room, covered in blood. I didn’t actually see what happened, but I knew instantly that a crocodile had attacked her and bitten her legs off. I tried waking up her mother and I was holding her (the child) in my arms and crying. Then I woke up. The dream was so realistic, and when I awoke I was covered in sweat and shaking really bad. The dream upset me so much that I didn’t tell anyone about it. A week later, I found out two other friends had dreams in which this little girl was also attacked by a crocodile. What could this possibly mean? A.R.E. dream.

The dream suggests a close and perhaps psychic connection with the girl and her mother.

Useful questions:

What or who am I feeling connected to or near at this time?

What is the influence of this connection?

Admiral

The ability to direct the many facets of yourself across the sea of life experience. In other words the ability to meet the difficulties of life decisively and to make decisions direct action. This may also be a father or authority figure. The admiral may also represent the best or transformative in you.

Or if you have connections with the navy you need to think or feel what an admiral means to you.

Useful questions:

Am I the admiral in my “sea of life experience”?

Does the admiral represent an authority figure I know, such as father or schoolteacher?

Am I meeting a need to deal with challenging circumstances?

See: Roles.

Admiration

As a child we need our parents admiration and praise in order to unfold our potential. Also, admiring qualities in others is one of the ways we shape our own direction and choices. So it is useful to take note of what is being admired in yourself or another person, and how that is reflected in your life.

This may be a straight forward awareness of your feelings about that person or a recognition of those qualities in yourself. It might be a sign of personal success and confidence; probably indicating qualities in the person you either have yourself but may not be recognising, or else qualities you would like or need to have.

Feeling good about yourself; recognising things about yourself you may have overlooked; positive self-image; confidence. On the other hand it might be a compensatory dream expressing the need to be admired due to your low self esteem. If the dream stresses the situation making you a figure of great admiration, it may suggest an inflated opinion of yourself or a strong need for approval and acclaim from others. See: emotions and mood.

Idioms: Lost in admiration.

In some dreams, and in some fantasy work, a sense of enormous appreciation or admiration often arises. June Dunlap, in her book Exploring Inner Space, describes such a feeling of admiration – experienced while feeling herself to be a fly – in the following way – ‘At frequent intervals I would swoop down, alight, rub my graceful back legs together, and admire the opalescence of my delicate sunlit wings. Totally without egotism but with deep satisfaction, I stated repeatedly, ‘I’m beautiful. No one else thinks so, but I really am.’’ Such feelings of admiration and awareness of beauty about oneself are often more direct, and arise as a sense of enormous appreciation of what has been achieved or met in your life. The admiration often results in feelings of love for yourself, which is very healing.

Useful questions:

What is it that is being admired, and am I aware of those qualities in myself?

Can I allow the good feelings about myself or another person?

Am I feeling low at this time and needing appreciation?

Is this a recognition of an emerging quality, or am I compensating for not receiving enough attention?

Admit or Admitting

This might be showing something you have found difficult to recognise about yourself or another person, therefore it might be about arriving at new insight. Sometimes admitting something arises through a confrontation of some sort. It might be in connection with your need for someone. This might be difficult to accept because of dependence. In some dreams it shows new levels of self acceptance.

Useful questions:

What relevance does what is being admitted have on your waking life?

If there was difficulty in admitting, can you recognise what the difficulty was or is?

Can you consciously accept what was revealed?

It can help if you use Processing Dreams.

Adolescence

Adolescence is the time of your greatest sexual growth, and development of new ranges of emotion, intellect, and sensitivity. So any adolescent in your dream often points to yourself at that age, and the things you faced – or if you are not yet a teenager, then the things you feel about moving toward adolescence.

During adolescence we move from youth to becoming a mature adult. This means learning to become more independent of the work energy, the money and time given by parents. It means making your own decisions, moving toward earning your own keep and establishing yourself in the community and the world. Sometimes the break from parents is made by establishing a relationship with someone. However the shift needs a level of heroism in many ways, and if you succeed the difficulties change and deepen you.

Many things we face while young are never resolved, or remain as potentials, and are frequently confronted later in life. So the dream teenager can depict these unresolved issues or potential still to discover.

Hurt feelings of love or wanting to be loved; damaged self esteem or feelings of value in the world.

Female teenager in a female’s dream: Possibly feelings to do with the process of sexually maturing; competitive feelings in relationship to men; some aspect of your own feelings as a teenager.

If this is a known friend, it most likely represents the attitudes and qualities, or lack of them, seen in the friend. In which case the other aspects of the dream describe the part these qualities play in your life. If it is an imagined female, it usually depicts yourself in some way, perhaps in a way you might not usually see yourself. Possibly she is enacting the issues of most importance in your life.

The feeling or emotional side of dreamer rather than the thinking assertive; uncertainty or inexperience in relationships; powerful sexual/romantic attraction or feelings.

The eternal side of your nature, forever young.

Define how you see the character of the teenager and take it to represent those characteristics in yourself.

Depicts the feelings or assessment of their own future, or ways of meeting future relationships. Or it might show a relationship, its pleasure or difficulties, with a teenager such as brother or sister.

Whether the young person is your own child, someone you know, or a stranger, it is often an expression of yourself at that age and the things you were confronted by at the time. Therefore define, perhaps by writing down, what attitudes and feelings were predominant in your own teenage years. Common themes are uncertainty/shyness, inexperience, immaturity, high sexuality, idealism, ambitious hopes and plans for the future, depression, the confidence or strength of youth. You can decide which, if any, of these your dream deals with by defining what feelings are expressed in the dream.

Possibly represents feelings of competition or aggression with other males, depending on dream content; the qualities depicted by the dream male, and their place in your life.

Sexual inexperience, social aggressiveness or uncertainty. Yourself at that age if you are male. Aspects of relationship not lived out in your teenage if the dreamer is a woman, or reflections of things still active in you from the past.

Feelings of sexual attraction coloured by adolescent vulnerability, idealism or uncertainty; uncertainty or inexperience in relationship; or what you feel about that particular teenager. Often the dream shows your difficulties in a male female relationship, and this gives a clue to working through those difficulties.

Please view this wonderful examination of what adolescence/teenage is  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH-BO1rJXbQ

Useful questions and hints:

What did I face as a teenager that is still a factor in my life?

What am I exploring about being a teenager, and what can I learn from this?

What is the character of this adolescent and how does that relate to me at the moment?

What theme or actions surround the teenager, and do they give clues my present situation?

What things are happening in the relationship with this adolescent and do they throw light on a present relationship?

Example: I was flying over a landscape covered in trees like a large parkland. I was reasonably low down in my flight path, and the land looked fairly flat. But suddenly a long low hollow or depression became visible as I neared it. I knew intuitively there was a young man down there who had been injured. Sam T.

Sam explored this dream and contacted strong feelings of depressed withdrawal from his own teenage years. The words ‘long low depression’ were very descriptive of what he found.

The dream below shows Hillary taking her teenage feelings into her love making. This is because Hillary had no chance during teen years to mature sexually, so as an older woman, she now finds herself meeting a young girl’s feelings with her lover.

 Example: ‘My lover, and I were going to try and make love, both with our own hurts and being aware of each others difficulties. We were both very gentle with each other. A young girl came in under the bedclothes with us. I thought it would interfere, but I could see it wasn’t worrying her. She was playing hide and seek. We were in bed out in the open countryside.’ Hillary.

See: boy; first example under falling; girl; individuation; man; teenage males dreams; teenage females dreams; teenage girls love dreams; woman.

Useful questions and hints:

What did I face as a teenager that is still a factor in my life?

What am I exploring about being a teenager, and what can I learn from this?

What is the character of this adolescent and how does that relate to me at the moment?

What theme or actions surround the teenager, and do they give clues my present situation?

What things are happening in the relationship with this adolescent and do they throw light on a present relationship?

Did I manage to transcend my parents way of life and thought?

See Programmed – Self Observation – The Fundamental Process – Mountain Path – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Adonis

The beautiful and self sacrificing side of love; feelings of ‘worshipping’ someone, or desire to be worshipped and adored.

Useful questions are:

Are you in a self sacrificing relationship?

What does this dream depict of your love and of being loved?

Are you facing a deep need to be loved at the moment?

Adoption

To be adopted is double sided. It implies either the loss of parents or being rejected or left by them. On the other side it means someone has accepted you and taken you as their own child.

If adopted: Might be a sign of feeling unwanted or insecure in your family or relationships. Many children have a fantasy or belief that they were really adopted by their actual parents. This may be a way of coping with difficulties or even cruelty by parents. It enables the child to emotionally distance themselves to some extent from their parents. Some children long to discover that its real parents had lost it and will return to take it back into the love and acknowledgment it needs. This because the present relationships do not satisfy its need to feel special and wanted.

If adopting a child: You may be longing to become a parent, but uncertain about your own ability to produce a child; a need to express the enormous power of your love and caring; some sense of feeling abandoned and the attempt to give that part of yourself the love and security it needs.

See: abandoned; child; family and relationships.

Useful questions are:

Do I feel a lack of connection with my parents?

Is there a longing in me to go home – in other words to find myself in loving and caring company?

Are you dealing with your child self and caring for it – if so define what it needs and how to give it/yourself those thing.

Adore Adoration

Anything that we adored deeply influences or penetrates us.  Therefore we open ourselves to the influence of what is being adored.

Being loved is a very healing feeling. You might be experiencing this in your dream because you need it. Or perhaps you have achieved a greater ability to love and this is a result of that. There is of course a possibility you have an inflated sense of yourself.

What is it I adore, and what possible influence will it have on me?

If I am observing this in someone else, what is the object of love and how do I feel about it?

If this is an uplifting experience, can I observe this in my waking life at any time?

Opening oneself to the influence of what is being worshipped – an idea, a person, an object.

Inflated sense of self, unless you are meeting your own core self and feel it is holy.

Adorn Adornment

Dreams about adornment are often about a cave or holy place that is adorn with jewels or carvings, and it suggests you are entering deep into yourself and receiving parts of you that link your conscious mind with things that are universal and worship, usually thought of as spiritual. Or else it is memories of ancestral traces within you.

Adornment on men and women were probably first worn in ancient times when an attractive stone hung upon ones person caught the attention of other, so could be thought of as woman’s magic – probably to get a better man. The same with men, to show how different they were and as sign of being important. In today’s world they can signify the attention given to a woman, the memories attached to what is worn, or to attract attention as with rings in ones lips or nose.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I adding something to myself?

Am I compensating for something?

What do I feel as I saw the adornments, and what part does it play in my life?

Try Talking As and Processing Dreams to find a deeper understanding.

Adrift

Feelings showing you without any determining direction or anchor in life, such as family ties, sense of duty, personal motivations or involving interests or relationships etc.

If you are willingly adrift, or purposely set something adrift it might be you are opening yourself to what is beyond your control, the ebb and flow of the great forces in life, the trackless way.

If an object is drifting in water the meaning is of something being brought to you by life events – or carried away. If drifting in air then it links with things that you are noticing, perhaps intuitively, in your thoughts.

Useful questions are:

Am I lacking direction in a situation?

Am I allowing something beyond my control to take its course?

Is this expressing my dropping of dependency and attachment?

Adult

If you are a young person dreaming of an adult it may be indicating your potential, what you can become if you continue your present direction in life. But most frequently it is about the influence of an adult or adults.

See: Man or Woman.

To be an adult is not an easy task or achievement. There are two very different sides to it. Most of us achieve an adult body, but very few of us achieve emotional, sexual or spiritual adulthood. The story of this is told in all the old myths and legends – after all the greatest meaning is life and what we can achieve in it. So in becoming an adult we brave great dangers, face monsters, pass through difficult initiations. Fundamental to the whole drama of our life is the evolution of our own identity from the depths of unconsciousness in the physical process of conception, through to developing self awareness as an adult – from the great ocean of collective culture, language and society, to the emergence of ourselves as a mature individual. To do this we face death and rebirth several times when we metamorphose from baby to child; from child to adolescent; from adolescent to adult; from adult with youthful body to ageing body. It is such an incredible journey, so heroic, so impossible of achievement, so fraught with dangers and triumphs. It is the greatest story in the world.

The modern western adult is often very much out of touch with the life giving processes within them and feel isolated and often ill at ease in the world. The black figure in dreams, or the native can give us a much needed connection and balance.

Even if we feel we are an adult, there are usually still enormous potential remaining unexpressed, stil a great deal of unmet childhood or baby needs. See Beware of Love

Example: I was in a very loving relationship in which I had developed powerful emotional links with D. We communicated many times each day while apart at work, etc. But one day there was no communication. I felt tremendous anxiety and emotional pain and shock, really frightened that she had dropped me. In fact she hadn’t, but my fears were very real and difficult to deal with. A real shock.

If you are an adult facing feelings of abandonment, it may be helpful to recognise that such feelings usually connect with the realisation in childhood that if your parents died, abandoned you, or you were left and felt abandoned you would not have the skills or maturity to obtain your own needs. Although, as an adult, you might now be capable of gaining your needs, such powerful feelings of helplessness, anxiety or sense of abandonment, can be stimulated by any situation reminiscent of the childhood situation that first called them into play. Therefore, it can help to carefully look at your life situation to see what changes are producing these feelings. You also need to decide whether there is real cause for fear, or whether you are suffering anxiety due to past experience.

During adolescence we move from youth to becoming a mature adult. This means learning in some measure to be independent of the work energy, the money and time given by parents. It means making your own decisions, earning your own keep and establishing yourself in the community and world in some way. Sometimes the break from parents is made by establishing a relationship. However it is achieved the change needs a level of heroism in many ways, and if you succeed the difficulties change and deepen you.

This means a growing sense of recognising the needs of your partner yet not denying your own.  It means the ability to be something for the partner’s sake without losing your own independence or will. It means becoming aware of the issues that colour or influence relationship, and meeting them as partners. Independence and closeness together. You become caring sexual partners through discovering each others needs and vulnerability. It is emerging from the dependence of parents and what they provided or failed to provide. That it is difficult is shown by the number or people who never manage it – never move from wanting to be handed food and money as a child does – never moves beyond being angry with others for not supplying their needs – never manage a love relationship with the opposite sex – or a love relator’s with anybody.

When we move beyond the processes of growth faced in adolescence we journey into adulthood, during which we face relationships, work, parenthood or creativity, with more independence. However, there is no age at which we can say we have arrived at adulthood. Sometimes elements of babyhood, childhood or adolescence have not been outgrown even in old age. Dreams sometimes illustrate this when we see ourselves in the dream with an adult head on a baby body. Or we have an adult body but the genitals of a child, and so on. But in general, in this period of our life we dream about the issues of relationship, of finding our own strength to deal with life creatively and satisfyingly. There is an attempt on the part of our dream process to release and deal with early traumas or situations that occurred and led to blocking or trapping our potential energy and creativity. Without this clearance much of our energy to express and achieve is tied up in the past, or in non productive habits. At this time too our dreams explore the challenges and difficulties we face in outer life.

Unfortunately meeting challenges with a reasonable amount of our potential means a real and honest self-assessment and meeting with areas of feeling that have not been healed in the past. As Freud so clearly pointed out, there is enormous resistance to this. It is much easier to explore the controlled world of lucid dreams, or see ones dreams in the light of inspiration rather than confrontation. Of course, dreams are all these things.

Useful questions:

What is the character, the strengths or weaknesses of this person and what part do they play in my life?

What is happening between this person and me, and how do I connect with that?

If I imagine myself as this person what do I feel or realise? (See Dream Visualisation for help with this.)

Adultery

But adultery depicts the union with, or giving of innermost feelings to, persons or objects for which you have no committed relationship, or do not have a deep affinity with. Or it may be an urge caused by physical or emotional hungers, or needs deeper than the social and religious codes pressing upon you. It is also a way of opening a door to new influences, a new direction in life that will in some way change you, flow back to you with its own needs, light and shadows.

Exactly what your dream reveals depends on your feelings in the dream and the events shown.

Seeing your partner having sex with someone else: You are probably deeply uncertain about your own value and doubt whether you are lovable. These feelings may hide painful dependence upon the loved person. This dependence may be based upon childhood needs that were never met, or were betrayed. This can of course be an intuition, but be careful in deciding which.

If the relationship is felt as pleasant it can be a simple desire for sexual change, satisfaction and adventure that is not satisfied in waking life. If it is resisted, it is nevertheless your own fantasy, so may be desire masked by guilt.

Dream adultery can also be a means of personal attack within a relationship. This because you are having sex with someone else so hitting or hurting your partner.

If the adultery is felt as a threat, it may express anxieties about your relationship.

A woman being someone’s mistress: Can be any of the above, but occasionally anxiety about security. This because becoming a mistress might bring financial or emotional support.

Seeing your partner having sex with someone else: You might be deeply uncertain about your own value and doubt whether you are lovable. These feelings may hide painful dependence upon the loved person. This dependence may be based upon childhood needs that were never met, or were betrayed. It can reflect anxiety or intuition about your partners fidelity. It can also mask a desire to be rid of your partner, to leave them. The adultery would give you an excuse to leave them.

Dreamer commits adultery: We all have sexual desires that sometimes attach to people other than our partner – or to people it would be difficult in reality to have a sexual relationship with. If you are having sex with another person, the dream may therefore be a release of sexual feelings. If so it is a harmless way of exploring sex with another person, or an expressions of wish fulfilment, desire for sexual variety, or guilt about wayward desires.

Resisted adultery: A sign of struggle with your sexual desires; expression of strength meeting opposition in life, therefore strength to overcome difficulties.

Maurice Nicoll, in his book The New Man, points out that the biblical mentions of adultery were not only direct references to that as a real act, but also to a symbolical meaning. As a symbol adultery represented being unfaithful to the one God – whoring after other gods. Taken in general, adultery might therefore carry a similar meaning, a sense of being unfaithful in a committed relationship, whether that relationship is marital, social, work or to ones ideals.

However, being faithful to one person for some people is tortuous and so it needs to be understood that for some people it is in their nature to be polygamous.

Useful questions are:

Am I somehow cheapening a valuable experience in life?

Do I long for something that is physically or emotionally forbidden to me?

Am I not admitting the needs I have ?

Does this show an area of my life that is full of energy that I do not let flow into my everyday life?

See Dream are Virtual Reality and What do you Bring to Your Dreams.

Advancement

Desire for improvement in ones life; a sense of confidence in your abilities at the time of the dream, or that you are making headway in a situation or in life generally.

In many dreams the advance is being made by someone or something that is getting ever closer. Sometimes there is a sense of anxiety with this. This portrays something you are confronting in yourself, or in life, that is making inroads on your confidence and energy. Define what it is by considering where you meet this feeling while awake.

If the advancing person or thing is not threatening, it shows a growing awareness of a situation, a developing relationship or internal experience that is getting ever nearer or more imminent.

Idioms: In advance of; make advances to.

Useful questions are:

What do I feel in the dream, and where do those feelings arise in waking life?

What am I advancing into or to?

What am I leaving behind or moving away from?

Is there anything or anyone helping me?

Adventure Adventurous Adventurer

The dream is probably depicting new experiences you are daring to allow yourself, or that circumstances have pushed you into or confronted you with. Perhaps you are making changes within yourself, or in your external life. You are probably taking risks, doing something new. The context in the dream will state whether the risk is worth taking, or whether fears or other factors hold you back.

Dream adventures often show you deeply involved in something, trying out skills against difficulties, and very often appear when you are exploring your own inner world involving your past or wider awareness.

There can of course be sexual adventures in which you move into challenges of expressing your feelings or facing your fears.

If difficult: Facing things about yourself that are painful or you wish to avoid; afraid of, or there are difficulties with; change.

On an interesting/pleasant adventure: Undertaking something new and/or difficult; a new opportunity presenting itself; making a change; undertaking the journey to meeting oneself; learning new skills and expressing new potentials.

Useful questions are:

What is it in waking life that is challenging you or involving you deeply?

Are you making changes that call on new skills? Have new levels of inner experience opened, if so what?

What skills or qualities do I need in this?

Adversary

The person or group you are pitted against represent something, probably within you that you are in conflict with. Such dreams show parts of your nature you struggle with. Jung called this the Shadow, the aspects of yourself you are frightened of, or repress for one reason or another. Enemies in dreams usually refer to some facet of this. Though it may simply depict something you are struggling with, a relationship for instance, or feelings about work.

Because the enemy is usually an aspect of yourself, real change can occur by relating differently to each other. For instance if you are lucid in your dream you can become them so fully there is no problem.

Useful questions:

What is it in me that I am in conflict with?

If I imagine myself in the dream is there any way I can resolve the enmity?

What is the action in the dream and what does this show of the details of the conflict?

Adversary

See: Enemy.

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Advice

Whether the advice is given or received, this usually suggests information you need to think about, and perhaps act upon.

Being given advice: What you need to know but perhaps wouldn’t take from someone else; intuition – occasionally of utmost importance, especially if the figure in the dream is one you feel natural respect or veneration for. Feeling pressured by other people’s opinions; sometimes it represents the influence of other people in your life – the pressure of other people’s opinions, or your own sense of what you feel others expect of you.

Giving advice: Conscience; sense of ‘ought’ or ‘should’; what you desire to say but haven’t; what you know to be useful unconsciously, but perhaps haven’t accepted; trying to influence another person or some aspect of yourself. In the example below, Renee, the dreamer, may be exploring attitudes and discovering an appropriate response to a situation.

Example: …. I can now talk candidly to my mother. She tells me she’s having an affair with someone named Dan Morris. By now she is very upset and has tears in her eyes. She says he treats her like a slut and a piece of filth. She uses other similar words. I ask her why she doesn’t just leave him. She forcefully says, ?No! That is not a possibility. Then I ask her why she doesn’t just reverse their relationship and treat him like a slut and a piece of filth. I start to offer her what I consider very wise advice. I think she shouldn’t allow this man to be in control. At the end I am happy and feel I’ve helped her. Renee P.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this advice about an issue in my waking life – if so what is the essence of it?

If giving advice is this something you should personally take notice of?

What is the subject of the advice – health, love, work – and does it apply to that area of your life?

See Information and Insight.

Advocate

An advocate in your dream is a part of you, or a feeling, that supports and argue for you. Often it is a demonstration of qualities you are not aware of.

If you are the advocate for someone else it suggests you are feeling strong and clear about a situation or person.

See Lawyer

Aerial Antenna

This usually shows you what is happening with your intuition or contact with others through subtle means. So you might be tuned in to information or insights that are useful in some way. Your intuition is vast and can give you ‘news’ of what is happening around you or within you.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the signal I am picking up and what message can I extract from it?

What is the theme of the dream saying about the aerial and how does that link with my life?

Can I transmit as well as receive?

What is happening with the aerial, and what does this suggest about my ability to be intuitive?

Is there a problem with the aerial – and if so what can I do about it?

Am I receiving information, and if so what is it?

See Using Your Intuition.

Aerobatics Aerobatic

This suggests you are, or are going to be daring in your life or undertakings. This could connect with any aspect of your life, but is often connected to relationship, work, or ones efforts toward personal growth. The success or failure of the flying will show how fearful or confident you are in expressing your daring. This is largely a matter of nerve, and anxiety can bring you down. It doesn’t matter that you are watching someone else do the aerobatics, it will still most likely refer to yourself. That is unless you know the person flying the plane. Then it might suggests an observation you are making of them.

Useful questions are:

What is it I am daring to do that is risky or adventurous at the moment?

Am I showing off in some way trying to attract the attention of others?

Does this reflect in any way with the relationship I am in at the moment?

Aerobics

A possible reference to your attempts to keep healthy – lose weight – remain sexually attractive. How the dream presents the action will define whether this is a suggestion for more activity in that area, for less, for a change in attitude, etc. Occasionally this might be giving you the experience of how it feels to be really flowing and alive. If so nurture the feeling and replay it often.

Useful questions:

Do I need to take more exercise and is this dream suggesting it?

Are there aspects of the dream showing new information about health or giving health suggestions – if so do they apply to me?

As a piece of drama what is the dream depicting?

Aeroplane

See Airplane.

Aerosol

Something that may influence you in a subtle, or perhaps invisible way. Feelings under pressure that may escape at the press of a button. Means of dealing with a situation, depending on what the aerosol does in the dream – getting rid of irritants? Killing germs? Cleaning something?

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the dream aerosol designed to do, and how does that connect with your needs or desires?

Do I want to kill something – if so what does that suggest in my life?

What situation am I changing with the aerosol?

Try using Talking As to define the dream and its meaning.

Affair

In general dreaming of a pleasant affair is a way of enjoying or exercising the wonderful feelings of falling in love and sharing emotional and sexual pleasure. Many dreams are compensatory, and therefore make up for the lack of passion or excitement in our daily life. But having an affair in a dream may help keep alive or active the ability to love and be loved if there is not sufficient stimulus in waking life. It is not unusual for married and happy people to dream of an affair with someone else.

This may express nothing more than a desire for variety, but of course occasionally is the sign of an infatuation or desire for the person we love in the dream. Adultery dreams may also express release of sexual feelings; desire for another partner; desire for one’s partner to have sex with someone else.

The person you are having an affair with may represent a particular attitude or situation in your life. Therefore if the dream has a strong feeling such as failure or fear attached to it, the affair might well be dealing with your ?relationship? with such life situations. Examples include – infidelity; betrayal; failure; longing for love; feeling alone in a relationship; etc.

Many dreams of lovers are a painful and often desperate affair where the dreamer longs for the attention and ‘love’ of someone she or he has a crush on. These are often a natural part of growth where in dreams we wrestle with powerful emotions until we emerge with more mature responses. See Beware of Love.

Another possibility with dreams about an affair is that they express the constant process of trying to find a balance between what we deeply desire and what is socially or personally possible. Some people will marry or live with a person because that person is the best they could achieve in the circumstances. Nevertheless they may still long for someone different. Or perhaps there are aspects of relationship missing in their present situation, and they long for a fuller satisfaction but do not want to

destroy their present situation. See: boyfriend; sex in dreams.

Difficult affair: Because dreams are a safe area to explore our emotions and relationships, such difficult dreams may be a way of meeting fears we have about relationship. Often they bring to the surface painful feelings about a past or present relationship. There is thus a chance to work through such difficulties toward an ease with ones feelings of attraction and love. See: processing dreams.

Dreaming about someone you are having a waking affair with: Your feelings about, analysis of, fears regarding the state of the affair and where it will develop. See: Fifth example below.

Homosexual affair: For women their first love affair was with their mother, so was a love for someone of the same sex. So a woman’s homosexual dream may often have this element of seeking the comfort and love of the mother. In a more general sense such dreams may depict ones difficulties or fears of relating to someone of the other sex; ones hidden feelings and difficulties regarding ones father if in a male’s dream; the introversion of ones own sexuality and desires if one is being seduced or buggered; or meeting an autonomous or dissociated part of ones own nature; exploring what is involved at a more than surface level in the relationship.

Loving affair: Our experience or pleasure in relationship is one of the most profound experiences we can meet. It can be enormously healing if we can relate to pleasure in a way that does not cause tension or guilt. Therefore loving relationships in dreams are ways of exploring our own possibilities, not only within ourselves, but also in future relatedness. The person we are relating to in the dream is an image not only of our own desires but also of how we relate to intimacy, love and pleasure. The interaction with them reveals all your difficulties and skills in regard to living and being loved.

In Damon’s dream below, he gradually moves beyond a feeling of separateness to an experience of union. This suggests he is feeling at ease with his own sexuality and ability to melt, thus allowing another person to enter his feelings deeply. In fact when such union takes place there is a very real sharing of self in a psychological way, much as there is at a physical level when the sex cells merge and share genetic material.

Ones partner having an affair: If the dream is disturbing, usually displays the fears we have about being unlovable or inadequate – see example below; a deep wish to be rid of ones partner. So seeing him/her with another person makes it possible to leave him/her without feelings of guilt or responsibility. In a very few cases this depicts an intuition of ones partner having a secret affair in real life. See: autonomous complex.

Example: I was in a building with a number of people. Winnie, a woman I worked with many years ago was there, sitting cross legged on the floor. I went to her and kissed her. She responded and I put my hand down on her thigh under her skirt, and gently moved it under her knickers to touch her vagina. It was moist and wet with excitement and I pushed my fingers into the slippery crevice. As I did so my feelings rose in a beautiful soft and satisfying orgasm. I thought I had ejaculated, but had not.

Then I was in a street and met a dark haired young woman. We embraced and kissed. The feeling of mutual pleasure was intense. So much so I felt what she was feeling as if we did not have separate bodies. I felt an orgasm grow inside her pelvis and reach its pitch, flowing into the rest of her body. It was her orgasm but it felt as if it were mine also. It was a beautiful melting experience with no harshness or disappointment anywhere. Damon.

In the dream below Andrew’s fear of his wife’s desire for another man is being expressed. But the dream really depicts Andrew’s feelings of sexual inadequacy.

Example: I was on board a pleasure cruiser with my wife. As I stood on a high deck I looked down and saw her sitting below with very tight knickers on and nothing else. As a man walked toward her the knickers came off or slipped down. The man was sexually aroused and started attempting to penetrate her. She only put up a token resistance, mewing a bit, but not fighting him off. I rushed toward them and kicked him off.? Andrew P.

Example: I sit on a bed. Near me, looking at a book I am holding is a woman I know, Stella. I realise as we talk that her foot is touching mine. As my wife is on my left across the room I feel uncomfortable about this. Now Stella has her left hand on my penis. I have only underpants on. She remarks that it is interesting that my penis has its own little pocket, which is a reference to my pants, and seems to make sense in the dream. The contact is pleasant and undemanding, but I feel more and more ill at ease. I feel Stella is not having any respect for my relationship with my wife and start to tell her so. As I do this I realise I am sitting so near to the edge of the bed I am almost falling off. Rick D.

This dream presents the struggle Rick has with his pleasure at having the attention of another woman, and his feelings of connection with his wife. The edge of the bed and falling suggests he feels very on edge and insecure about such feelings.

Example: Someone was fondling my breasts. I felt the weight of whoever it was as they lay by my side. An electric like feeling ran up from my feet. It woke me up instantly as I was terrified. I dreaded going to bed. My husband and I have had separate rooms for years, due to his insomnia. The dream occurred a few times a week. Sometimes twice a night. Eliza L.

Eliza is a spiritualist, so believes the experience is a psychic event. As a casual observer there appears to be a direct connection between the lack of her husbands attention and the clear experience of a sexual partner. Her terror is most likely due to the fact that Eliza is actually frightened of her strong sexual feelings, and so may have chosen an undemanding husband. If not that, she is certainly afraid of this emergence of her dream life into apparent physical reality. See: hallucinations.

Example: I was sitting with my husband, my daughter or sister, and Rachel C. Rachel, who is the same age as my daughter, was telling us all that she wanted and would have a sexual relationship with B, my husband. As she kept talking about this, I thought, at first, how open and honest she was being and how easily she could talk about her sexuality, but as I listened I began to feel cross and upset as I saw B. was going along with what she was saying. She and my husband lay down on the wooden floor. He was being very encouraging and his eyes were shining very brightly. At this point I felt very upset. My daughter/sister pointed out to everyone that I was upset but no one seemed to notice until then, and I felt that B. was really teasing me and making fun of my not being able to cope with the situation. My husband came over to me with his arm out to touch me but I was so angry and I put my arm up to shield myself from his touch and then began to throw things at him to express how angry I was feeling. H.

Example: For the last year I have been having an affair with a married man. I dream I am visiting his home, and as I approach or should I say float up to the front door, which is open, I can clearly see him standing in the hall. One of his sons is shouting down the stairs and he is answering back. He seems agitated and harassed. I deliberately float by the open door and linger long enough for him to see me. At this point I am aware that something is following at my heel. My man then quickly comes out of the house and sadly indicates he cannot leave his family and home for me, and quickly returns to the domestic scene. I then sadly turn away, and as I look down I see a large scraggy Irish wolfhound. I realise he has come out of the back door of the house, and has been following me closely. The striking part of the dream is this rough looking dog, for when I look into its deep dark brown eyes I can see and feel such love and devotion and am so warmed. As I take the road away from the house, the dog stays close at my heels and I know I have a devoted friend who will never leave me and I feel much happier. As we walk away I can hear in the distance my man’s wife calling the dog from the back door. On getting no reply I hear her irritatedly say ‘Well, we can easily get another one’. and bangs the door. J. Y.

J. is working out her situation with her lover in this dream, realising for herself that he is not going to leave his family. Nevertheless, she does take something positive from the relationship, shown as the dog, which probably depicts devotion and warm love.

Useful Questions and Hints:

In what way does this dream comment on my present relationship(s)?

Are there lessons in this dream I can apply to my waking life?

Does the dream show things I am denying myself in waking, or that I could express in waking life?

What problems are shown in the dream that I need to be clear about and work on?

It could help to read Growing Up to Love and Beware of Love. See: Adultery

Affectation

If some sign of affectation appears in your dream, you need to ask yourself what you are doing that is not in accord with your deepest feelings or character.

The dream can depict mannerisms that are not in accord with your deepest feelings or character. If the affectation is observed in a person you know, it might be an intuition about them hiding who they really are.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I doing something out of character, or pretending to be something I’m not?

Why is this happening in the dream and has that got a message for me?

Does this remind me of someone I know – and if so what do I feel about that person?

Try using Talking As to get more insight into the people in the dream

Affliction

The affliction we dream about is usually pointing out something you have difficult feelings about, are afraid of, or that really stands in the way of a fuller and happier life. Remember that the dream is giving an image or drama that tries to describe as a cartoon or mime, what the problem is. So as a metaphor what is it pointing to?

See: Illness

Afraid

As humans we tend to be afraid in our dreams, and often in our life, of almost anything. We dream of the dark, of a hole into which we might fall, a shadowy figure, animals attacking us, other humans, ghosts and spirits, devils and demons, sexual feelings, and so on – but especially of death and our children dying. Often it is not just fear, but terror.

Here sure some examples:

Example: Can someone help me with this dream last night I had a dream that someone walked into our house and my boyfriend wasn’t there he left to work and someone came to my bedroom and stabbed my son I tried to fight with him and then he stabbed me several times. My son was lying in the bed the way we sleep and he was dead and I was lying next to him bleeding. The man left the house in a hurry I grabbed my phone to call 911 and he comes back in the house so I hide my phone. I pretend to be died and then he leaves then I woke up. what does this dream mean?

Example: I had a disturbing dream last night. I apparently murdered a friend from school, who I have not seen for more than 20 years in real life. In the dream, I had to hide her head with no body in a box of washing powder. My husband was instructing me to pour some washing power over the head to hide it and as I did so, the power turned into liquid. I could just about see the head trough the washing liquid and I was very fearful that some one would find it.

Example: Last night I had a dream where I was bitten on my left hand by an evil/ ghostly dog.

Example: I had a dream the other night that my brothers and I was at my mother’s house and there was a raving bear inside a fenced area. But anyway we were all afraid to go into the fenced area. My one brother said that he could calm it down, it was standing at the other end of the fenced area looking kinda down, he walked over to it and it swiped at him 2 times slicing his head and neck.

Example: I had a dream about two purple snakes, coming from different directions, one from the left and the other from the right. These started going after me, however I kept running and running from the centre, at times they would seem like they want to come together in the middle and attack me and I kept running.

Example: I dreamt that my wife and I were in bed. She was asleep on my left against a wall. I was lying awake wondering whether there were any ghosts in the house. Deciding to test this, I said aloud, “If there are any ghosts, show yourselves.” Nothing happened, and feeling a bit smug, I close my eyes in readiness to go to sleep. As I did this, the door to my right creaked open, and two black men entered. They looked as if they had risen out of a grave, almost as if the flesh was hanging of them. I was very frightened as they came towards me with their arms reaching to me. At the time of this dream I was a member of the Rosicrucians, and one of the things I had learned was about the said power of the sign of the cross. So I made the sign of the cross, and said one of the words of power used by the Rosicrucians.  At this the two black men disappeared. I felt, not only great relief, but also as if my knowledge had given me some power. I suppose, once more, there was some smugness, as if I was strong enough to meet anything.

So I lay back in bed ready to sleep. As I did so, once more the door creaked open, and in came the black men. This time none of my waving of hands in the sign of the cross, and all my magic words stopped them. They reached me and their hands went around my throat to strangle me. I woke up screaming and terrified. (See link to Rosicrucian Order).

Despite all of such dreams there is nothing to be afraid of in your dreams. Dreams are a magical mirror in which your innermost hopes, longings, fears/terrors and genius are made real. They are made real as external environments, people, animals and relationships. Unfortunately this wonderful virtual reality world is usually felt as dealing with other people, as externals, like something that can damage us, or something like the Devil that can possess us. But the greatest truth I have found in exploring dreams – not interpreting them – is that we are alone with ourselves in the world of our dream. If we can acknowledge and admit that our terrors we dream are actually our past hurts or fears that we have not faced presenting themselves for us to heal; that the ghosts and demons that can rampage about our night are embodiment’s of our fears and ideas presented to us as truths; that our wonderful visions and insights are an expression of our own infinite potential, then we can walk a pathway to finding what we really are.

Most of the things we are afraid of in dreams are things that we carry into the dream from our childhood. We are so programmed by what our parent fear or believe that we carry them into us and are haunted by them in our dreams. Obviously there are things to be afraid of in the outer life, but not in the world of our dreams where we are alone with ourselves. So running from the bear, tiger or dog that attacks you in your dreams is running away from your fears. Nothing can hurt you or kill you in your dreams except your own fear and anxiety. See The Magical Dream Machine.

An example of this is given below:

Example: I was getting ready to leave and this dark haired guy told me I couldn’t leave, I felt scared and was going to leave anyways. He pulled out a pistol and shot me in the stomach, I fell down, but there was no blood. The thoughts in my head was, “OH NO”. Next thing I remember is that I was still on the floor in the same place and I got up and I remembered being shot but I didn’t seem to have any pain or blood and was moving normally etc. I started looking for a way to leave I was sneaking around trying not to get noticed so that I could get out of there w/o the shooter guy seeing me.

The interesting thing in the example is that even though she could see no hurt came from being shot, yet she was still scared of the guy with the shooter. And it is overcoming such fears that can release you from terror and hurts that haunt us. But here are some dreams where the dreamer feels no fear.

Example: The mobile home was so large the edge of it was over the ridge I was walking. There was no space to duck down to avoid it. I looked to my left and there was a sheer drop for about 200 feet. This was like the face of a massive dam in shape. I jumped down and as I was falling and falling I wondered how I was going to land. Would I smash to bits on the obviously hard ground below? I didn’t have any great fear about this. So it wasn’t a nightmare or anxiety dream. I never seemed to resolve this question because suddenly I was on the ground without any sign of hurt or even a bump.

As I hope you can see it is only the fear you carry into the dream that causes people to wake in terror. The example of the two walking dead is a dream that the person worked on and gradually saw was his tremendous fear of his losing control over his sexual feelings, which he constantly held back. As it was resolved the fear disappeared.

Useful Questions and Hints:

You could alter the dream by visualising it differently. See How to Face Fear to help with that.

Try seeing what you take into your dream. See What do I Bring to my Dreams.

It helps to understand your dream, so use Processing Dreams to do it.

Also always remember that you are much bigger than you realise – so look at You are More than you Presently Know.

See: Anxiety; emotions and mood.

Africa African

This may refer to your own feelings about black and coloured people or racial prejudices if you are white. If you are black, then it is about some aspect of your own personality or experience.

Africa was the birthplace of the human race, so may refer to your personal origins. But if you are aware of particular associations, such as having lived in Africa or studied it, then it would probably refer to those associations.

In dreams we still use native or tribal Africans or Australian Aborigines to represent our own natural inner life, the feeling urges or intuitions that guide or beset us. Thus the African, or being in Africa in a white person’s dream, unless we have defined associations with it, may represent a level of our mind or consciousness, that does not differentiate and separate things in the same way our conscious rational mind usually does.

This African or archaic strata of consciousness produces a sense of being connected with the mysterious spirit of life itself. It also gives insights into the wisdom learned through collective human and animal experience.

The African would suggest contact with the insights, intuitions or influences arising from such a source. It therefore also has a connotation or connection with formation, the coming into form of what exists at present unconsciously as potential. See: aboriginal; black people; natives.

In some dreams of black people by white’s it often shows much freer sexuality or awareness of life’s urges.

Useful questions are:

Is this a connection to the more instinctive aspects of myself?

Does this pertain to feelings about skin colour?

How am I relating to this part of me that connects more fully to my intuitive self?

What can I, or am I learning from this relationship? See: Aboriginal, Abroad; The Life Will.

Afterlife

See: death and rebirth underarchetypes; death; death and dreams; death – is there life afterwards.

Afternoon

The time of day in a dream sometimes refers to a period in your life. In this sense afternoon often represents middle age, the years of physical decline, or of fruition in your life.

But the dream may not be referring to age. In this case it may suggests a winding down period, the more subtle feeling areas of experience or relationship, or a period of relaxation.

Useful questions:

What does my dream suggest is past its peak, or in a relaxed or winding down phase?

Is there a feeling connected with my dream, and if so what is it?

Where am I going or what doing that applies to my everyday life?

Age Aged Ageing Ageless

The age of characters, family, animals, objects or yourself in a dream often carry very definite associations or information. What these associations are depends a great deal on what age you are yourself.

Idioms: Act your age; age of consent; age before beauty; ages since; an age; at an advanced age; at an awkward age; come of age; ripe old age; show ones age; under age.

In general:

ageing; Moving toward death; a sense of inevitability; an identification with the body rather than with the process of life; passing of ones opportunities offered by the younger phases of your life, but the opening to a new relationship with life given by the new period.

ageless; Depicts the core of you that does not suffer from change; the spiritual aspect of your experience; the changeless core of self which has lived throughout time.

baby or child; Refers to your feelings of dependence or vulnerability, perhaps even helplessness or powerlessness; but often it suggests need for love, support and care; it may even represent actual memories of your own baby/child/hood. The bay or child also depict newness, new opportunity, a fresh approach. See: baby; youth.

extreme old age; Feelings about death; old way of life; some influence in yourself or surroundings that antedates your birth. Influences from ones family such as attitudes or fears may be generations old, and so be depicted as incredibly ancient; often represents something holding a lot of wisdom or experience. One may therefore feel the person is holy or revered in such dreams.

middle aged person; represents achievement, maturity, the ageing process. The elderly person may depict feelings about ones parents or a parent/authority figure; the wisdom gathered from many years of living; the declining power or creativity, or the feelings of decline and loss within oneself. Such feelings are often simply cultural and are not a real reflection of what is possible or opportune at this time of life. It is a time when you have to create your own world and life more fully than in previous ‘ages’. See: individuation.

new object or thing; Something that is just appearing in your life, like a new romance or opportunity. But sometimes it represents something that is just a new idea, something that has not got any physical reality yet.

old fashioned; An old way of doing things; something established as compared with something new or emerging; something accepted socially; time tested but perhaps now out of date.

something or someone as old as yourself; Usually refers to yourself in some way. Dreams often include houses which were built about the period of ones birth, and so refer to ones own lifetime and what has become of you. Thus an object the same age as yourself would depict some aspect of your life, depending on the object.

teenager; often points to whatever difficulties you faced, or are facing, in the process of meeting sexual drives, adult relationships, and the need to become an independent and motivated part of society. Thus there may be feelings of uncertainty, shyness, inexperience or idealism suggested in the dream teenager.

very old thing; Either an early part of ones lifetime, such as babyhood, or something that happened in the past and because you have changed so radically, appears to be a very long time ago; or refers to things that influence you which are from a time before your own birth. We are all influenced by the culture we live in for instance, and that is very ancient. But could also be a family trait, or even an influence or vitalising motivation with which one was born, and which appears to have arisen from a

distant past; something that represent wisdom or deep experience. This wisdom is usually not yet defined. It needs to be made conscious by exploring the symbol. This can be revelatory in that we become aware of massive information gathered but never before made conscious.

young adult; Yourself at your physical peak; yourself at that age; that period of your life; the period of worldly opportunity.

If one is a child or youth: most adult figures would suggest either a parent or authority figure; the possibilities of ones own maturity; a role model, or a target for admiration or sexual attraction; perhaps even some form of security in love and being cared for.

If you are already past mid-life: the younger people in your dream in general depict that period of your life and what was learned or experienced at that age. The different age groups also represent the opportunities commonly associated with that age. For instance a sixty year old women who falls in love might say ‘I feel like a young girl again.’ Or one might say to a young person, ‘You’ve got an old head on your shoulders.’ It is in precisely this way that dreams use age to represent feelings and situations.

Example: I dreamt I was on a garden with an old man, a young boy and a young man in his thirties. The plot of land had something of the feeling of an allotment. It was well tended, and I had the sense the young man had been doing most of the work on it. The soil was rich but at the moment dry. A few shoots were just breaking the ground from hundreds of bulbs which had just started shooting.

The old man was kneeling at the edge of one end of the oblong plot of land. He was digging up bulbs one at a time and looking at them, then putting them back in the soil again. As the soil was dry he had to dig the hole a bit bigger to get them back. The bulbs had good roots and the shoots were firm. I was agitated about the old man digging them up though, and felt he should let them be. This seemed to link with my own propensity to dig up seeds when I was younger, to see if they had germinated.

The young boy was simply watching and was quite shadowy. The younger man was getting on with whatever work he was doing. I spoke to him after leaving the old man. Henry G.

Henry, the dreamer is a man in his late fifties. He explored his dream and summarised what he realised as follows:

In connecting with the feelings in the dream the different aged males are all facets of myself. The old man is my own sense of ageing, and the feeling of dryness and being outside of the opportunities that I associate with those younger than myself. My feeling that nothing is growing in my life makes me want to dig under the surface of things to see if there are any new things that might arise. The younger man is the active and creative period of my life during which I did in fact ‘sow a lot of seeds’ which are now emerging into reality. The boy is my impatience but also the aspect of myself from which new ideas and directions can emerge.

He is that part of me which is still growing, like the bulbs. The garden is my soul/soil. It is all the work I have done to cultivate skills and attributes in myself and create things in the world. What is important is that even though I am in my fifties, these younger parts were skills and attributes I developed in the past and are still active in me today.

Example: Every night for the past six months at least, in my dream there is a baby. I seem to be neglecting the baby, i.e. I tell myself it is time I fed it or changed it etc., but the baby thrives in spite of my neglect. It is never the same baby – it looks different each time – but it seems quite content. Mrs. M. C.

Here the age of the baby reflects the level of feelings the dreamer is dealing with. The keyword is neglect. So Mrs. C. is being reminded by her dreams that she is neglecting either the needs arising from her own childhood emotional dependence or her need for warmth and love as a baby. The imagery of the dream suggest it is warmth and love she is not getting enough of, and most likely she didn’t get enough when she was actually a baby. That she is now a adult does not reduce the strength of her unfulfilled needs.

Example: I am in an unknown old building with unsafe floors. I vaguely feel it belongs to my long dead father. Around me are rats, which have young. I am hysterical because they keep multiplying. People with me, unknown, although my husband is there, I don’t seem to care about them. I usually wake shouting because one of the rats touches me. I am not frightened of rats when awake. Dorothy C.

The age of the building suggests there is some connection from a long time ago. The dream goes on to say the connection is with the long dead father. This is unclear because Dorothy has not yet made it conscious what the fear is that arose in herself from her relationship with her father.

Example: ‘I am packing for a holiday, surrounded by a lovely selection of all sorts of clothes. I am matching outfits, shoes, scarves, handbags to match. It gives me great pleasure. I am wearing an old navy blue dress which is too short for me. So short I feel panic because there will not be enough time to change. I am now on the top deck of a bus. I have one battered suitcase and am wearing the same dress, trying vainly to pull it down over my knees. Suitcase bursts open and it is full of old clothes fit for a jumble sale.’ Valerie H.

Example: From Dream Power by Ann Faraday page 163. I was being presented to a Persian king in the grounds of his palace. As we talked a group of happy, laughing young girls came into the garden, followed by a rather sad looking middle aged woman who I thought must be the King’s chief wife. This woman was obviously in charge of the harem and was sad, I felt, because the king no longer wanted her sexually and had relegated her to the role of household organiser. One of the girls came to Sally and said, ‘Don’t you recognise me? We were together in a previous incarnation’.

Ann Faraday’s comments on the dream are that she realised the king represented her husband, and she was the chief wife. This led her to realise that in the early years of their marriage there had been much joy in their sexual relationship. This had faded in the years preceding the dream, and they had grown apart sexually. The middle aged woman therefore represents her own sadness through feeling past her prime and unattractive. Such feelings do not mean she is actually unattractive, only that she feels she is.

See: age and dream; adolescent; baby; boy; girl; daughter; age and your dreams; ancient.

Idioms: Act your age; age of consent; age before beauty; ages since; an age; at an advanced age; at an awkward age; come of age; ripe old age; show ones age; under age.

Useful questions are:

What does the particular age represent to me?

Does this signify particular aspects of the age?

What were the main events or features of my life at that age?

Does this dream highlight special aspects of the thing or person. If so what are they?

Is there a difference between what I think about.

It might help if you use Processing Dreams.

Agenda

Things you want to do, or feel you out to do; feelings about your future; plans. The dream agenda may have arisen not because of your conscious decisions, but perhaps what your inner self knows would be useful to do.

The agenda could be there because you are deeply influenced by another person’s needs or decisions.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is your present ‘agenda’ and how does it relate to the dream?

What is the dream showing as things you plan to do or be?

If this is someone else’s agenda, how much are you involved in fulfilling their needs?

Try using Talking As and also Processing Dreams to help find the meaning of your dream.

Agent Agents

An agent can also be a person, animal or even a situation or food that acts as an agent for change. Because it has so many possibilities it is best to define the dream by using Processing Dreams.

Useful Questions and Hints:

If you were the agent what were you doing, or what was your role?

What was the task or activity of the agent in the dream.

What was hope for or aimed for in the dream.

Try using Talking As to help in finding the dreams meaning.

Aggression-Aggressiveness

Aggressive feelings are one of the main ex­pressions of our energy, along with sex, ambition and survival. Generally speaking, it is not wise to hold them back even though they are in an awful and destructive phase. Wherever possible it helps to seek a more satisfy­ing and constructive expression for them – beating a pillow with a rolled up newspaper for instance, while allowing your feelings to vent.

Many aggressive or hostile feelings arise from childhood experiences, and are, at their origin, directed toward one or both of our parents. But unfortunately in adult life they tend to fire toward someone we have an emotional link with, such as our partner or even ones child.

It often happens that held back sexual impulses turn to aggressive actions or intentions.

Perhaps you live in an environment where violence is a part of life, if so please read Dream Yoga.

It is fascinating to see how our cultural background stimulates or diminishes aggression. In his book The Dreaming Mind Robert van de Castle says, “During my eight visits among the Cunas, I never saw a child hit or heard one severely scolded. Nor did I ever see a young child on the ground, because the child was always being held on someone’s hip or sitting in someone’s lap. Such indulgence produced a secure and confident child who felt extremely accepted by every member of the tribe. As a consequence, there was an almost total absence of competition, rivalry, or Cuna-to-Cuna aggression in the dreams of Cuna adolescents. The aggressors in Cuna dreams consisted of the Panamanian National Guard, evil spirits, animals, and foreigners. By way of contrast, almost half of all American adolescent dreams involve aggression and it is generally with other Americans. (Kuna or Cuna is the name of an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia.)

We might displace our aggression in our dreams by dreaming that instead of killing our boss, we might dream that our employer’s automobile is crushed by a runaway garbage truck.

If you are aggressive in a dream it is most likely showing you your own aggressiveness, and will point out where it stems from. Is it from being ignored, given wrong goods and wrong price, being treated like a nobody or a fool, being lied to?

If you are the victim of aggression in your dreams ask yourself whether there is a part of your own nature which as directed anger inwardly instead of expressing it. Also look to see if there is a situation in your family, or in work that is threatening you – is so take steps to alter it.

Example: Lenox Lewis the boxer plus another man also a famous boxer were having a competition as to who was the strongest. Yet they were not fighting just moving boxes with pictures or building blocks around. You could see that they were very frustrated by the way they were lifting these boxes, attempting to utilise their strength. The feeling was that some do-gooder was trying to show that men who used aggression could turn this energy to something more constructive, such as, what set of blocks compliment each other or what large piece of jigsaw puzzle fits in what place. I could see the intention that the creator of this idea was trying to achieve. This was a way of turning raw energy and aggression into an intellectual and creative skills, still with a competitive spirit. Yet the whole concept was spoilt by such a childish approach. The mind that had dreamt the idea up had very little if any sense of his or her animal nature.

An interesting dream because it tries to solve the problem about the dreamer’s aggression, but it doesn’t take into account his animal tendencies. See Reptile and Mammal Brain in Humans.

Example: I was attending an adult class with about 20 or 30 people, mostly men. The teacher came in. He said something and a man asked a question or spoke back. The teacher got really angry and hit him with a walking stick. Someone else in the class remarked on the beating and was attacked also. A man sitting next to me on my left said that if the teacher hit him he wouldn’t sit and take it.

But as the second man was hit, my companion said something like – Bloody hell. The teacher landed two mighty blows on his arse, but he didn’t move. I said in horror “Good God!” whereupon the teacher moved to hit me. I stood up and said, “If you hit me with that thing I’ll whack you in the fucking ear.” I felt keyed up and ready to fight. He backed off and threatened to get the headmaster on me. I told him to try it. He said if I could do better try it. So I took over the class and it went really well. Then I seemed to be witnessing a young man making love with a girl in a room. A teacher burst into the room and got angry at the couple. The young man was not at all cowed. He said, “You burst into a private room without knocking. We happen to be adults. I want an apology.” The teacher was silent for a time then apologised. The young man said, “Thank you sir. I am proud to acknowledge you as my teacher.”

The dreamer was a man in his forties, and the dream, when he explored it was about the sort of violence he witnessed at school. It shows how he felt and what he wanted to do, to stand up for himself for taking such heavy blows – but at the time lived in the belief that it was normal. But he was now seeing it from a different viewpoint, and handled it very well. As you can see, you do not have to cower to aggressors in your dreams. See Dream Yoga.

Here is part of an interview with Stanislav Grof that is very interesting.

Jerry Snider: What about our current cultural period? The social climate today has a feeling of hopelessness, of being trapped. People have lost faith in most of our institutions, especially our political institutions. In our urban populations, the rampant crime keeps people feeling trapped. Are we in any single classic stage?

Stanislav Grof: Yes. Many people who have these inner experiences, take a larger look and see that we have now enacted in our world a lot of the elements you would encounter internally when you are in a transformation process. For example, you would encounter tremendous unleashing of aggression. You would confront destructive and self-destructive tendencies within yourself if you have an inner experience. There is also a liberation of repressed sexuality. This has been happening for years. Just about every aspect of sexual behaviour has been openly presented in the media. There are all kinds of very unusual sexual experiments such as S&M parlours, sexual slave markets, fist fucking – all these things have sprung up. So the sexual impulse is sort of being released and acted out, and also the aggressive. There is an increase not only in criminality but in terrorism as well, all over the world. Then you have satanic elements emerging from the collective unconscious. The deep levels of the psyche are now being ventilated.”

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is the anger in the dream directed toward me or someone else?

If it’s toward me, am I dealing here with anger in myself I am not recognising, or am I sensing the anger in someone I know?

Am I frightened of expressing anger or hostility?

Can I allow a safer expression of my anger?

It may  be useful to use Carry the Dream Forward and us Processing Dreams. See: hostility.

It can help to deal with anger and aggression by using The Cushion Technique.

Agile

This shows you coping well with what life is confronting you with, and having adaptability or mental quickness.

If it is someone else who is agile it might still refer to you, as your dreams often use other people to illustrate some of your own strengths and weaknesses. See: movement; postures movement and body language.

Agility in your dreams can mean that you are mastering the ability to use all the movements, postures, gymnastics of dreams. In other words you can change from being in a body or out of it, you can meet and deal with images of fear and anger; you can fly into the awareness of greatness and genius, you have become a master in the realms of death. See: movement; postures movement and body language.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is the agility accomplishing anything, and if so what does that suggest in my waking life?

What does the dream suggest I need to be agile in connection with?

Does this in any way show me needing to be more flexible about something – work – a relationship?

Depending on what you are doing it  might help if you use  to explore your dream.

To be really agile in your dreams you need to practice a form or Dream Yoga. There is a short version Here and the long version Here.

Agony

What feeling or decision, what responsibility or concern is tormenting you? Or does the dream suggest this is a physical pain? If so See: Illness.

Agony in your dream may be a sign either of something radically wrong in your body or in your inner feelings. If it is the first you need to arrange a physical check. If it is the second you need to arrange a situation in which you can talk out, explore and express the inner agony.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I aware of actual pain in my body while awake, and am I doing anything about it?

Does this agony depict a misery I am carrying inside me, and if so how can I allow it to be expressed?

What clues do I get from the dream about the source of the misery?

You can make great changes and healing by using Acting on Your Dream.

Agoraphobia

As with fear of falling, this may represent an actual fear. But as a symbol it means a fear of being exposed, of being seen, of possible attack, and of having nothing to hide behind or under. In general it is about anxiety. See: Anxiety.

Useful questions are:

What is it I am afraid of if I am in the open?

What might happen if I am exposed?

Is the fundamental fear that of death or something else?

Agreement

A harmony of previously unreconciled opinions, emotions, beliefs, etc. It is important to clarify what is being agreed in the dream, and what you feel you know about this.

Agreement or lack of it in dreams shows how easily or otherwise you relate to or work with others. It is worth considering how this reflects on your daily life.

Useful questions are:

Am I agreeing to be polite or do I really feel it?

Does the agreement lead to doing something together of parting ways, and what does this suggest in your waking life?

Is this agreement about an important decisions – if so what is it suggesting about my waking decisions?

Aim

Suggests directing attention desire or emotions toward what is represented by target or goal. Motivating toward something or the power of intention.

Edgar Cayce said that, “Mind is the builder” and so whatever you aim for or strive toward becomes real if you work at it

Aimless: Undecided; conflict; loss of pleasure or what gives pleasure and meaning to life; unacknowledged pain defeating pleasure and motivation; fear. But also it can be about trusting Life to guide you, and not being possessed by ambition and a way of life that constricts you.

Being aimed at: Feeling a target, perhaps of other people’s criticism or attack.

Being the target: Feeling as if you are being criticised or attacked.

Gun or weapon being aimed: Directing or directed anger or serious threat, sexuality or attention.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I aiming at?

Does this imply a goal or other important target?

Do I feel criticism or threats are being aimed at me?

Do I know what I am aiming at?

Get a fuller understanding by using Acting on Your Dream.

Air

Dreams use air in two ways. The first depicts the sort of feelings we have if we have ever struggled to breathe through illness or danger. So the lack of air could show a struggle you are having to survive in the present situation.

Air is the tangible opposite to physical life. In most dreams any mention of air is in regard to flying and ones ease or effort to do so. Therefore the air depicts the medium in which we express the pleasure or difficulty of flying. In these dreams the air probably represents the invisible but felt social atmosphere within which we unconsciously exist and strive. Therefore occasionally a dream shows the dreamer losing the air – wind out of the sails – that sustains their flight, suggesting a loss of the support usually gained from public or individual acceptance or approval, or ones own confidence. When we talk about ?clearing the atmosphere? – or there being ?something in the air? this is precisely what dreams of air often refer to.

In far fewer dreams air is mentioned in connection with breathing, as in the example, and depicts, in its absence, a fear of not surviving in connection with what one is facing at the time. In other words a strong sense of being overwhelmed by anxiety or some invading influence, or struggling to survive. See: breath; wind.

Floating on air: relates to ones mind and mental attitude, idealism or lack of it. This may show how we manage to escape from ‘reality’, or painful things such as shyness, by thinking beautiful thoughts, or creating a mental world inside ourselves through meditation. In a positive sense this shows an ability to change your state of mind at will.

Fresh air: Fresh ideas; new approach; mental attitude in which you can feel more alive or creative; an easy ‘atmosphere’ in which to survive.

Poisonous air: Ideas or atmosphere in which you find yourself losing your own identity or deepest motivations; a killing of your own vitality.

Something appearing out of the air: Intuitive perception.

Stuffy air: Mental emotional or social atmosphere in which you are not stimulated or free to think creative or individual thoughts; atmosphere of moral rigidity in which it is difficult to ?breathe?.

Idioms: Free as air; up in the air; light as air; a breathe of fresh air; in the air; a lot of hot air; the air was blue; clear the air; into thin air; put on airs; up in the air.

Example: I am in a cot and suddenly the bottom falls out and I find I am under water – I do not feel the wetness or the cold, I just know I am under water and must not breathe. I cannot hold my breath any longer and gasp for air – still under water – and am surprised I can breathe perfectly normally. Mrs. A. P.

Example: Gliding from a mountain top. Then I am with Pat Brown, a girl friend I knew at school. I am lying on top of her holding her breasts. Then I am led into rooms but avoiding them each time as I felt some sort of trap and threatened imprisonment. To avoid being caught I take a deep breath and this caused me to fly up into the air and away.

The first example illustrates the connection between breath hold and dealing with anxiety. The second shows how flying into the air is an escape mechanism.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I afraid of not surviving a situation, or losing support?

What is it I sense ‘in the air’ or atmosphere?

What is my relationship with the environment I am in?

Do the specific events or actions in the dream give a clue to what I am dealing with?

Am I escaping into airy feelings?

Do you problems with breathing, if so see The Slow Breath and The Breath of Life.

Use Acting on Your Dream to define what your dream is about.

Air Conditioner Conditioning

Perhaps ones lungs; methods or techniques you use to ‘cool down’ or calm your feelings or ‘blood pressure’, so a way of dealing with stress; relief. Ways you use to ‘clear the air’ in a disagreement or relationship.

This I believe obviously links with breathing and may be about the air we breath and its quality. See Breathing

Example: They carry me through the window to my basement room I shared with another woman who talks about her boyfriend. Then it is hard to breathe. Oh, I hear a motor and we guess it’s a VW bug or bus and it’s an old man’s wheelchair. Then it’s hard to breathe and we see yellow thin strips of confetti-like stuff all in the air and we are breathing it in. It is in the air conditioning so we all get up and go outside where it is a hot summer night.

But the media has shown other associated ideas we may have with air conditioning. Because air conditioning draws air from outside it may be illustrating that in some way. Also all rooms are linked and so it is often shown how people can get into someone else room/life; or even discover otherwise secret areas of oneself or an escape route.

Example: A couple of years ago I lived in an apartment on the second floor.  A skunk had a made its nest on the ground outside, directly below the bedroom window.  In the summer in Los Angeles with no air conditioning and the windows open, there were some terrible nights.  That’s the only skunk experience I have had and it was pretty bad.

If felt as cold: Something causing emotional withdrawal or coldness. See: air.

 Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the air conditioner doing, and how does this relate to you?

If the air conditioner is malfunctioning what does this suggest in your daily life?

If you stand in the role of the air conditioner, what do you arrive at?

Do you problems with breathing, if so see The Slow Breath and The Breath of Life.

For help understanding your dream see Acting on Your Dream.

Air Raid

Feeling under attack, the severity depending on the dream damage. The attack might be emotional from people, or feelings we have about events around us. Things may be going badly at work, and comments be felt like bombshells. Very often though, the threats are purely emotional/mental. We may read of an illness such as AIDS and the anxiety we connect with the idea has a devastating effect.

Example: ‘I am in a house and planes are dropping bombs on it.’ Mrs S. M.

Example: I was in a room with my aunt and uncle. It was dark outside and there was some kind of air raid going on with glowing missiles flying through the sky. I was terrified and tried to draw the red curtain across the window to block them out. The window was a right angle shaped one in the corner of the room. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t cover the whole window. As fast as I pulled the curtain across, the other end would be exposed, showing the missiles. I was becoming more and more frantic and my aunt and uncle just sat at the table playing cards, completely unperturbed and indifferent to my fear. D. K.

This dream from a girl in her teens clearly shows how she is dealing with her fears concerning the world. Her distress is even more intense because the fears of external threats which appear very real to her, are totally ignored by her family. The curtains depict how much she tries to shut these feelings out of her mind, and how unsuccessful this is. The dream is probably dealing with her difficulties in facing life as an adult, and the demands it may place upon her.

Idioms: I feel blitzed; it come as a bombshell; go down like a bomb; go like a bomb; put a bomb under someone; earn a bomb. See: aeroplane; war.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What in my external life am I feeling threatened by?

Are things happening out of the blue that I feel threatened by?

Am I facing new things that I am still learning to deal with?

Can I put a name or situation to what threatens me?

You can gradually change any fear of anxiety you feel by using Carry the Dream Forward.

Air-Sea Rescue

To be rescued from the sea depicts a situation in which you are at the mercy of powerful natural forces – perhaps strong spontaneous emotions or fear – that you are not dealing with well, otherwise you would not need to be rescued.

Even if it is someone else rescued in most cases it still points to an aspect of you that needs help. This may refer to a difficulty in dealing with the demands of life generally, and a dangerous attraction to giving up, losing your identity as you withdraw inwardly. If you are seeing or actively helping in an air sea rescue, this suggests an action to deal with feelings that might otherwise engulf you or someone else. In this case it is showing what strengths or techniques you use to deal with difficulties and challenges. See: Sea.

Useful questions:

What powerful emotions or changes am I dealing with?

Am I feeling overwhelmed by something?

Can I define the strengths and ways I use to deal with threatening feelings?

Do I feel as if I am ‘drowning’ in a situation or relationship?

You can use Carry the Dream Forward to gradually change what you feel.

Aircraft

See: airplane.

Aircraft

See:  Aeroplane

Airplane Plane

The plane in your dream shows all the amazing possibilities of change, of varied experience, of romance, business and discovery in life today. But it also holds all the possibilities of failure, of not being able to get your projects or relationship off the ground, along with delays, unexpected threats, and the possible tragedy and loss you might meet in life. Your dream airplane communicates this in the action your dream portrays. The plane journey, for instance, suggests a change in your life, leaving your ordinary affairs behind. It is a journey into the unknown, into taking risks. Perhaps you are making a move toward, or away from, love and opportunity. It is risky because the plane can fall from the sky, and you can meet feelings of failure or despair.

A plane can also attack, and this shows fears, anxiety about being exposed to attack from other people or events. This does not mean you will be attacked, only that you fear it.

To climb aboard a plane is to embark upon dramatic movement from one way of life, or one situation in life, to another; a leap into the unknown, into chance – so it is a powerful symbol of change. Perhaps that flight into chance, into life and its mysterious possibilities might be okay. But it might fall from the sky too. Meanwhile, on the plane you will not have your feet on the ground, you will not be secure, everything is ‘up in the air’. The plans, the love, the hopes and efforts might die, might lead to tragedy with all its rippling effects moving into the web of relationships and events connected with the flight of the plane.

In exploring a dream about a plane crash it took a long time to really connect with anything, but when I did the feelings were all about how there has been a crash of my dreams, ambitions, desire for love and the heightened feelings that arose or ‘took off’ in connection with a lover. In comments on planes above I say, “The plans, the love, the hopes and efforts might die, might lead to tragedy with all its rippling effects moving into the web of relationships and events connected with the flight of the plane.” This was true in my life.

An attacking aircraft: Feeling attacked either by your own doubts and self criticism, or that of others.

Being grounded: Sense of not getting anywhere and frustration; plans and hopes that haven’t connected with achievement or opportunity – maybe this isn’t the right time yet.

Biplane: It can represent a more full contact with flying in a plane, and needs a lot more courage to do.

Example: “I saw a biplane fly overhead. Its pilot was performing daring new stunts. I ran into a house to tell a man who was in bed to run out and see the plane. ” David R.

The example clearly shows one aspect of what a biplane means, being daring in a new area, taking risks in life, braving a new work area or relationship.

Difficulty landing: Difficulty achieving goal or making it real in a down to earth way; anxiety about where life events are taking you; feeling out of control or not being in control; difficulties or fears about being in someone else’s hands.

Falling out of plane: Usually anxiety, sometimes about death or failure of high hopes. It is also the opportunity to fly if you can overcome your anxieties.

Flight attendant: A part of you trained in dealing with personal problems, and also emergencies.

Pilot: The pilot is a part of you used to having a much wider and inclusive view of where you are going in your life, so trust their help.

Plane falling rapidly: ‘Pit’ feeling in stomach that one gets when feeling anxiety about the outcome of a situation; sense of failure or guilt; apprehension about the future of a project or direction; anxiety about something.

Plane journey: The plane is also a means of leaving things behind, rising above or finding a way of escaping difficulties or the past. It is a way we move beyond the limitations of any one locality, racial customs, family attitudes or religious environments. It is the power of the mind to move among and learn from or experience these many states of being. It offers a much wider or more inclusive view of where you are and where you are going in life.

Private plane: Ones personal activities and plans not deeply connected with other people.

The crashed or wrecked plane: Worry about failing. Can be anxiety bringing down your ambition or adventurousness; a loss of self confidence or mental equilibrium; warning about a business project; broken dreams and hopes. Sometimes shows or refers to a break up in a relationship or a failed endeavour, a hope, a journey that fails.

Watching a plane crash: A sense of emergency; feeling you are aware of an important social or national event. Sensing something difficult happening or having happened in your life, like a divorce or loss of business or love for instance. Can sometimes relate to childhood traumas that make it difficult for you to get your life taking flight.

The plane journey: Shows a move toward independence; leaving home or friends; success.

Watching a plane land safely: The arrival back to oneself of the actions, words and energies sent out into the world. As a simple example, we may have a carpet to give away because we are moving. We tell a neighbour who passes the information to someone else. This new person wants the carpet. A completely new person therefore lands, or arrives in our life. The landing plane may also mean coming down to earth again, or making something more applicable in an everyday sense.

The example below clearly shows one aspect of what a plane means, being daring in a new area, taking risks in life, braving a new work area or relationship. David is calling on a part of himself that is withdrawn and inactive to ‘get up’ and be involved in something daring. Sometimes the plane in the sky represents feeling threatened by something new or unknown. This is shown in the second example.

Example: I saw a biplane fly overhead. Its pilot was performing daring new stunts. I ran into a house to tell a man who was in bed to run out and see the plane. David R.

Example: A woman who was a radio researcher was offered the job of presenter. She was thrilled but dreamt she was in a road walking and planes flew overhead dropping bombs and shooting. She had to dive into a ditch to avoid being killed. When she explored the dream she realised she was afraid of facing the public directly, and this fear if left unconscious would have caused her to refuse the job. She accepted the fear and managed to press forward with the job.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I taking a ‘flight’ into a new or challenging situation or relationship?

What am I leaving behind or arriving at?

Are there radical shifts of life style I am involved in?

Do some events in my life feel like a ‘plane crash’?

It helps to read this Dreams Are Virtual Realities and also Processing Dreams and Acting on Your Dream.

Airport

Refers to making new departures; changes, hoped for or real; desire or need for adventure. This could be mentally, emotionally or sexually; achieving goals; being en-route to something, or something new in life; a checking of one’s own values, identity, a sort of self assessment in regard to independence and moving to new opportunities. Self doubts and uncertainties at this stage stop us from attempting the new; occasionally the departure point for ‘higher planes’; considering that a flight might take us to new places, opportunities or relationships, the airport can represent a terminus or change in connection with any of these.

This could be mentally, emotionally or sexually; achieving goals; being en-route to something, or something new in life; a checking of one’s own values, identity, a sort of self assessment in regard to independence and moving to new opportunities. Self doubts and uncertainties at this stage stop us from attempting the new; occasionally the departure point for ‘higher planes’; considering that a flight might take us to new places, opportunities or relationships, the airport can represent a terminus or change in connection with any of these.

Landing at airport: Meeting a new experience; arriving at a goal or ambition; coming down to earth after being involved in flights of fancy, creativity or change.

Missing a flight at airport: Feeling anxious about plans not working out, or failing to meet deadline; lost opportunity; warning that you are cutting things fine and might actually miss a plane, etc.

Picking someone up from airport: Meeting a change in your life; something arriving in your opportunities or experience that is out of the normal day to day events or routine.

If it is someone you know: it suggests a greater alliance with the aspect of yourself suggested by the person, or perhaps an alliance with that person.

Planning airport stops: Clarifying strategy for a goal you wish to reach, or change you are attempting to make.

Difficulties in realising: The route suggest things you sense stand in the way of realisation of goal. Stranded or delayed at airport:

Difficulties with changes going on; anxiety about changes.

Trying to get to airport: Attempting a change or to get to a goal; moving toward a new departure, or a change from the usual routine – unless flights are part of your usual routine.

See: aeroplane; foreign countries.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Where am I trying to arrive at in life?

Am I trying to escape or ‘fly/flee’ from something?

Is my present situation new territory or ‘foreign’ country to me?

What risks am I taking at the moment?

See Processing Dreams for help.

Airship

This can mean an uplifting experience, for airship do not need to go fast to stay aloft. So it is like being shown a higher viewpoint without effort.

But because of the history or great crashes it may represent for you threats of disaster, depending on the dream.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Any feelings you have in the dream will give an indication of what it was prompted by.

If there was any sign of danger, what was it and how did I cope with it? See Active and Passive.

If I felt uplift, how could I put into words what I felt or sensed.

Aisle

The aisle as a part of a building or plane, represents the way between opposites; a way through. If you are in the aisle it suggests possibilities of being in public view if there are people about; moving between opposites; the experience of connection with other people, or being connected by a common purpose or link. Sitting near an aisle suggests you can get out of the connection with other people more easily, or are more open to whoever or whatever is in the aisle or what it is leading to or connected with.

The aisle often appears in dreams about marriage, and in such dreams probably depicts the powerful social and personal feelings and expectations connected with an approach to the decision making and commitment of marriage. It therefore might indicate the pressures holding you in that place. See: corridor.

Useful questions:

Where is this aisle leading, or what does it connect with?

What do my actions or feelings here suggest?

What is my relationship with the aisle?

Am I connecting with someone, and if so what does this suggest about my waking relationship with that person?

Alarm

Hearing an alarm in a dream suggests something is trying to get your attention and wanting you to wake up. Basically it is to get your attention to do something – what are you supposed to do?

But there are so many types of alarm signal; for instance a telephone ringing is an alarm signalling you to answer. It could be an alarm clock, or fire station alarm, or an alarm signal telling you it is time to start of stop work; so decide what type of alarm it is and what context it is in. Context is the essence!!

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the alarm asking?

What sort of alarm is it?

Is it important and what do you do about it?

What is the context it appears in – see Context.

Albatross

An albatross is a sea gong bird and can survive and prosper in harsh times. It is like a spirit of sea and air. It is an amazing traveller.

Its folklore which may be an influence in your dreams is that it can mean a burden that you carry because you killed the spirit in you. But being followed by an albatross suggests good luck. See Birds

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is your relationship with the albatross and what does that suggest?

What feelings did you experience in you dream in connection with the albatross?

Was the bird healthy throughout the dream?

Using Processing Dreams can help you understand the dream.

Albino

What is it that in the Albino that so peculiarly repels and often shocks the eye, as that sometimes he is loathed by his own kith and kin?

To dream of an albino human suggests something or someone unusual. But it depends on the dream as to what it means. The albino will usually have a different view on life that others. If they enjoy the attention they it is a good sign, but if they are angry that they are so different they may carry difficult feelings.

If it is an albino animal, it is different, because white usually suggest purity or an influence that is beyond the normal. Some ancient people see it as spiritual with great influence.

Alchemist

The magical and transformative aspect of mental and emotional action within you. The alchemist depicts the ability you have to transform your feelings, and in fact your nature, by changing your own experience and body. Mostly we do this unconsciously by changing our surroundings when we feel down, or perhaps reading a book or going to the movies. But the alchemist is about taking over the process consciously.

The symbol particularly points to the ability to change what you consider useless, painful or worthless, into something of great value. This links with the process in you that can present childhood trauma or negative family attitudes, and in doing so transform them into insight and useful energy.

Useful questions:

Am I aware of how I allow or work with this influence in my life?

What can I do to increase the power of this transforming influence?

Why am I dreaming of this at the moment?

What is it in myself or life that needs transforming?

Is somebody I know a transforming influence in my life?

See: alchemist archetype.

Alcohol

Is an influence which changes the way you feel, moving you toward negative or positive feelings. It is therefore often used to represent ‘the spirit’ or a power that changes ones heart and mind.

It can also be a prelude to friendliness or intimacy; an allowing into your life of another influence you do not immediately feel is your own conscious will. It can indicate sociability; dependence; alcohol dependence and the loss of ones control over oneself.

The Daily Express reported that “a nap can be spoiled by a nightcap” and that “a wee dram before bedtime…causes insomnia and robs a night’s rest of its restorative powers”. This research evaluated the impact of drinking before going to bed on heart rate and sleep. The study involved 10 university students, who were given low levels, high levels or no alcohol to drink before bed. Drinking higher doses of alcohol was found to reduce the amount of REM sleep, and resulted in a shallower sleep during the latter half of the night. It also appeared to adversely affect the part of the brain that usually controls the body during sleep. From this, the researchers concluded that the alcohol had disturbed the restorative effects of sleep.

In 2015 it was shown that even the lowest amounts of alcohol can lead to Alzheimer’s.

In an inner sense the wine or spirit represents a life changing influence, an influx of power or potential – i.e. a deep self acceptance allowing new and often life-changing experience and energy both from within and from other people and events. In this sense the alcohol or spirit is probably used by the unconscious because the conscious self often feels helpless, or has to surrender control, in order to allow the upflow of what is potential or innate within you to emerge. It therefore relates to drunkenness – drunk with the spirit.

Here is a man experience of exploring his dream about being drunk because men had poured alcohol into him.

As I allowed this I had a deep sense that this represented a profound self acceptance, but also an acceptance of my life situation. I can see this in that I am no longer struggling to climb out of building work or common everyday life. The men I felt as ordinary everyday life experience, and they were pouring the spirit of life on and into me. In other words the acceptance of everyday life opens to a connection with the roots of life within oneself – life that is both common and ordinary, yet profound. At this first part of the dream I also had an image that I was drinking the blood of thousands of human beings. I don’t mean I was drinking lots of blood, but that I was drinking the essence of their blood. This had in it the experience of taking in a huge realm of everyday life. It was the taking in, the acceptance of a wide range of human experience – everything from deep sexuality to religious realms of the supersensual. This I felt was what the wine used in Mass represented.

I believe there is an obvious difference between dreams that warn us of overindulgence or dependence upon alcohol, and those that use it as a symbol of an influence emerging from your infinite potential. In the former, negative feelings of one sort or another appear in the dream. In the latter some aspect of a transforming influence is seen.

Beer Social relaxation; social acceptance – ‘with a glass in my hand I’m one of the lads’; mood change; sedative to drown loneliness or emotional pain.

Champagne Luxury; richness; worldly success; celebration or prelude to sexual relationship. But in life it is a killer of the Life urge in us, as is any alcohol. I wonder if that was why Islam bans alcohol drinking.

Example: I was in a holiday community in which worked. It was a warm sunny atmosphere, and I noticed a wonderful feeling growing in my body with a sense of expansion. A few days into that feeling I was invited to a woman’s party and champagne was being drunk. I was offered some but refused but a woman friend said I was being a downer and poured me half a glass of champagne. I felt nothing unit the next morning when the wonderful feeling was gone and I felt empty of any feelings, especially the feeling of wonder that had been growing in me. So although people use champagne as a great source enjoyment I felt it was only a deadening substance that people maybe use to cover up their own loneliness and joylessness.

Whiskey or spirits: Similar to beer or wine. May be used to refer to the inner power that can spontaneously express through one.

Edgar Cayce said that whiskey is the ancient symbol of evil spirits based on actual clairvoyant sightings of the entities that hang around and attach themselves to the alcoholic fumes, the bottle, the person, or the place where these drinks are served. Often these entities or spirits attach themselves to the habitual drinker, actually urging him to drink more. Whiskey can also be a means of oblivion, escape from reality, a stimulant (temporarily), and a depressant.

Wine I dreams may represent sociability; relaxation; social pleasure; the strange mystery behind the existence of self-awareness; blood or the flow of life force. The possible reason that wine, especially red wine, has become a symbol of the human spirit is most likely due to its method of production. The separate ‘lives’ of thousands of grapes were squashed so their life blood would pour into a common vat. This then underwent a magical transformation by yeast which turned it into alcohol. The connection here is that people who have a direct experience of God or of the spirit, experience it as a unification of all that has lived and is living. The experience of countless human lives has been linked and transformed into a vast sea of wisdom and heightened awareness. It is this we ‘drink’ when we touch our own union with the ocean of awareness that is our spirit. See: blood.

Example: We went to the same restaurant. This time it was narrower. We drank red wine from large goblets. On reaching for my goblet I knocked it over. The wine spread rapidly and I thought it was blood. I felt fear and ran from the dining room. Next I was sitting on a camel, being led by another girlfriend of mine. It was down a street where I had worked. It is called Hope Street. H. B.

The dream shows the connection the unconscious often makes between wine and blood. It shows how the alcohol produces transformations that lead the dreamer to experience fear. In other words the dreamer fears what emerges as the changes occur. Even so there is then the emergence of hope.

Example: I was sitting in a boat. It was a small sailing boat, on the sea. In one hand I was holding an ash tray with a joint, in the other hand was a glass of wine. I realised I couldn’t steer the boat while I was holding both. Bitz.

This dream clearly shows how the dreamer’s habits of drinking and smoking leave him unable to steer the ?boat? of his life properly.

Example: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. The King James Bible. Acts 2:2

Alcohol can represents the activity of a transforming process upon you. One that can change the way you act for better or worse. You need to consider your dream to see which of these it is. Also represents stimulation, relaxation, and a way to face inner anxieties, even if only temporarily. It can also refer to the way you deal with difficult feeling, by drowning them in drink. Or it might relate to sociability in some way, or the escape from the humdrum events of life. See: Coffee.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this dream about a transforming influence, or a dependent need I have?

If this is about a transforming influence in my life, can I identify it and use it?

What does the action of the dream suggest about the influence of the alcohol in my life?

What effect is the alcohol having on me in the dream?

If no alcohol is being drunk in the dream, what is the dream indicating about it?

See Processing Dreams to gain further meaning from your dream.

Alcoholism

See: Addicted.

Alien

This usually indicates urges or feelings you find difficult to identify with; feelings of being an outsider in a group or society. The alien can also depict something very new and previously not experienced in regard to your own potential or mind.

Frequently the alien in your dream represents aspects of your mind that have not previously been consciously experienced and so may seem frightening or difficult to understand. Considering that estimates suggest that we only use one tenth or less of our potential, it is not difficult to see that a large mass of our own inner functioning and experience are normally unknown and is called ‘the unconscious’. It is therefore not surprising that we have ‘aliens’ in our dreams and experience.

When some part of this unknown area of yourself emerges, or presses for attention, one may depict it as an alien. Quite often in dreams, or in UFO sightings, the meeting has a strong type of religious feelings. I believe, through investigating this experience, that feelings of awe and veneration often occur when fear is absent and we meet a vastly bigger intelligence or vision of life – even if it is our own unconscious content we are confronting.

While we sleep our conscious self is largely or totally unconscious, and while we dream our voluntary muscles are paralysed – therefore another will or motivating force moves our body. So we have a Conscious Will, and what I will call a Life Will. The first one we have experience of as we can move our arm or speak in everyday activities; but the second will takes over when we sleep. See Sleep Paralysis.

Life Will created your body and pre-existed you as a person you know today. It was working in you prior to your ability to speak or know in the way you do now. But of course it has fantastic wisdom and skills, as can be seen in animals. The human personality – the You that you call yourself, with a name, is only a tiny thing. It is moved and tossed around by all manner of drives, ambitions, emotions, fears, temptations, worries, love and desire with its pains and hopes; it is something we take so seriously and get carried away into awful situations; we take many sorts of pain killers to deal with ourselves.

But it is not usually realised that the whole phenomena of dreaming can occur while awake and you are in a receptive state of mind. Any visions, voices heard or hallucinations are all the product of the dream process breaking through the barrier that usually only allows such things while asleep. If you have had such an experience you will see, if you think about it, that as with dreams, images, people, voices appear as if outside you. That is exactly the work of dreams, which project a whole dream, its drama and characters, onto the screen of our sleeping mind. See Visionary for more information.

Because we are not used to knowing or seeing this wider and huge self our first feelings are that we are possessed by an alien being, or some dark shape or unknown creature. Remember that even while awake the Life will can control movements and thoughts. So any alien or strange thing that you experience needs to be treated like a dream.

That is not to say they are vague inconsequential fantasies, because they are attempts of your Core self – the ET of yourself – trying to communicate a much wider awareness of what you are. Yes, an ET. This Life will can move us to speak, to move our body, and in fact do things that we cannot do with our Conscious Will.

As Freud pointed out this inner will has full access to our memories. So much of our inner enormity is held back by the way we live and our cultural attitudes, that when it does press to emerge it might very well be depicted by our dream making process as an alien of a flying saucer. Nevertheless, often in dreams we feel the alien as an enemy or something to be frightened of. This is not correct, for this is like saying there is reason to fear oneself. In the short term this may be rational as some of our own urges may not be dealt with well, and so may be dangerous. But in the long term we can meet ourselves. See:  Life’s Little Secrets; The Two Powers; Accept all that you Are.

Example: This morning I woke up and as I opened my eyes and sat up there was this alien creature there in front of me. I was amazed and felt wonder because it was real and solid and was trying to communicate with me. I felt so much love for this strange creature and its attempts to communicate even though I couldn’t understand what it was trying to say. Then suddenly a switch must have been tripped inside me and I understood and knew the alien. It was my wife, and she was saying, “Tony, turn over you’e snoring.” I must have been coming from a level where my language centre hadn’t yet been switched on and I was seeing my wife as a delightful alien. Example: I then tried to feel my way into the alien. Powerful feelings again – fear – anxiety. Part of it was the feeling engendered by my father’s death. Here one-day, gone the next! But then I got through to seeing and understanding, feeling the underlying alien. It was part that in me, or of me, that watches other people’s reactions to my emotions; watches without feelings, except for cynicism and plotting. But more than anything else, it is my fear of loss of self. I had been thinking of this lately. One loses self to enter the unification of all opposites. I had read this description in the fourth level of psychedelic experience. It was also the fear of being possessed by something “alien” such as I had felt about sex, about having no problems, about the Zen meditation, the void, the egolessness. Example: Taken from a TV interview. “I felt a strange feeling up my spine, like rush up my spine right up to the top of my head. Then I was in a meadow and there were aliens there, not the grey ones but slight and slightly see through. A female alien was holding her baby in front of her, and if I were religious I would have felt it was Mary and her baby.”

This last one has all the signs of an altered state of conscious experience. Also very much likea kundalini energy rush which leads to expanded awareness. The baby and mother is another sign or expanded awareness and so links her with an archetype of motherhood, so she feels in contact with the divine. Devoured by aliens: Forces, fears, neuroses, at work in you that use up your potential energy, and stand in the way of easy self expression.

Example: I had been told by a woman I used to work with, that I was to photograph a wedding near the Aldwych in London. I went there but there was no wedding. I was then in an underground series of tunnels, helping to paint the floor of the large rooms. Then someone killed the woman friend because she would not tell them the short cut through the tunnels. The short cut was then open and people were coming through to where I was painting. I looked to my right through the doors of the large room and saw strange alien type creatures. I felt a bit anxious. They were like skinless creatures. Now I was walking out of the town. It felt like the end of the world, or the end of society. I was walking through lots of churches standing on a hillside, surrounded by grass. They were of all types, strongly built but empty now. I walked past a married couple who were walking up the hill too. As I passed I heard them say something about a shepherd. Looking up the hill I saw the sheep, then The Shepherd. A beautiful aura of many colours surrounded The Shepherd. I looked and felt joy and exuberance rise in me, and I ran to the couple saying it was THE SHEPHERD. Peter M.

Although the drama in the dream does not present a clear and obvious story, the dream does have symbols of unity in the wedding, of the unconscious in the underground, of the previously unmet aspects of self in the aliens, then the meeting with the religious feeling in the Shepherd and Peters joy. The end of society and the empty churches were representative of the changes going on in Peter’s attitudes and understanding of himself in relation to his own mind and religion.

Example: I left the house and went to the church nearby. I opened a door on the left side of the church but shut it quickly because ‘something’ was there. Five or six priests came and knelt down at the front of the church. The Reverend from my local church started talking and I hurried out, not wanting to get involved in the service. I then went to the side of the church and opened the door where the ‘something’ was. I could now see what it was. It was a being from another planet, completely human, but with a furry body and tail. It had a son with it. I slammed the door because I was afraid, but the catch did not connect and the door opened again. I threw a book in for the aliens to read. They threw out a book for me to read. It had loose pages – like my ready reckoner. I put them in order and read the story and lived some of it. As I read some of the words were in alien symbols, but I could understand them. Gradually the book changed to alien words. I/it progressed. All the lines sloped down from left to right. Now the sky was like a vaulted or squared ceiling. The two aliens looked down from one of the open squares and called. There was an answering call from two others of their kind. I knew these were the only ones on our planet. I also knew that they had to completely be themselves. I wondered why, and they told me it was because their whole race was within them. Peter M.

This is a dream of Peter’s that occurred at later date and shows his religious feelings, the church, directly presenting him with something alien. This new experience is gradually seen as himself – ‘I now looked within myself and also began to see all of them within, and was becoming like one of them’. Not only is Peter accepting this aspect of himself more fully, thus not seeing it as completely alien, but also it presents him with a new type of awareness – a feeling of connection with all of his race. In fact Peter had been a loner and very independent, feeling disconnected from society as a whole. This massive change, with very deeply felt fears and joy, is depicted in the two dreams.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is happening in my life that I don’t connect with, understand or feel is alien to me?

If I identify with the alien creature or thing, what feelings or facets of myself do I encounter?

Can I recognise from the dream the feelings or fears I use to avoid or meet with this alien facet of myself?

For help doing this see Processing Dreams and What we need to remember about dreams.

Alive

In some dreams there is a great feeling of extraordinary aliveness, or there is a particular emphasis on the difference between being alive and dead. This usually refers to the dreamers potential of positive feelings and energy. The dream might even compare the two.

Example: I was alone in a house and asleep in bed. Something materialised or landed on the foot of the bed. It woke me a little and I felt afraid. I had the feeling it was some sort of entity materialising and coming for me in some way. It moved up the bed a little. I felt paralysed, partly by fear but also as if the ‘thing’ was influencing me. This made me more afraid of it. Then it moved up higher, not on my body but on the bed. I was very afraid and struggling against the paralysing influence. I managed to shout at it – “I will destroy you. I will destroy you”. As I shouted I pushed at it with my hand. This felt to me as if I were going to will its destruction and use my hand to smash it. I still felt a little uncertain of the outcome but I was very determined to fight it. At this point I woke up or was awakened by my wife. She asked me what I had been dreaming. Apparently I had been pushing her and shouting that I would destroy her. David P.

David explored his dream in depth and describes his insights as follows –

I started by considering the recent nightmare of the ‘thing’ at the foot of my bed. Gradually I began to feel tense throughout my body, with difficulty in breathing. The ‘thing’ seemed at first to be a woman’s vagina. There was a little feeling in this but not much. Then it slowly grew in intensity and I realised the ‘thing’ was death. Recently it is obvious from the mirror that my body is going through another period of rapid ageing. The dream was a dramatic representation of my feelings about this. Death was gradually creeping up on me, gradually overwhelming me and I was fighting it. As the session deepened I saw that in my feelings I felt that death had put its finger on me. The touch of death was like a disease though. Once touched the disease was incurable and gradually took over one’s body. I could hardly breathe as I experienced this, and I understood the sort of emotions that might lie beneath asthma attacks. This struggle with death went on for some time. It was not terrible but was felt strongly. I also recognised that my wife. Deb, has similar feelings about her ageing, and is communicating to me that her body is dying and unclean, especially her genitals, and this is off-putting. I see that when I shout I ‘I will destroy you!’ in a way it is my fear of being destroyed that is behind the emotion.

I began to wonder what to do about the situation. The feeling was that death was claiming me. So, I wanted to face the truth about death, whatever it was. I wanted to walk right up to it and look it in the face and know whether death meant a final end. If it did I would rather know. As I approached death like this by imaging walking toward the THING, my feelings went through an amazing transformation. All the tension left me. I felt good, positive, easy to breathe and with a sense of hope about life and death. This was so surprising and sudden I wondered what had produced it. I needed to be aware of how this change had occurred. So, I retraced my steps to look at death and try to understand why it had lost its power of fear.

At first I saw that my tension and sense of death being or giving a disease was due to a view I had of it. When we look at the world only through our senses, death is obviously a terminal sickness that claims everyone. Someone said on TV the other day – Life is a sexually transmitted disease that produces a 100% mortality. Seen in this way death is the rotting corpse, the skeleton. The path to it is disease or breakdown. But in looking it in the face I saw another view of it. I saw the dead body, the corpse, the skeleton, as a form left behind by the process of life. When I looked at myself to see what ‘David’ is – I cannot separate myself from the process of life. That process leaves behind shells, bodies, tree trunks, but it goes on creating other forms. I am Life.

Useful Questions and Hints:

In the dream what attitude allows or creates this feeling of aliveness?

Do I diminish the feeling in any way, and if so how?

In what ways does this differ from my daily sense of myself, and what can I learn from that?

See Talking with the Dead; Near Death Experiences; Life and Death.

Allergic Allergy

This may be showing you an actual allergy you have. Or it might be used symbolically. In this case you need to consider what the allergy in the dream depicts. Look it up in the dictionary if possible.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What event, food or other substance might I be having trouble coping with?

Is there something I have a strong feeling reaction to that I need to be aware of – aware that is of how my strong feelings affect me?

If the dream involves people am I not seeing what a bad reaction I have to someone?

You might find it helpful to use Talking As and Processing Dreams

Alley

This is a direction you are taking at the moment. The dream shows you the often hidden side of what you pursue, so the condition, mood and quality of the alley is a comment on what you are doing or feeling. Because most alleys are small, it may be saying you are leaving the main highway of your life. See: road.

Like any road it indicates your prevailing direction in, or approach to, life – this direction/approach can be either self created out of your own actions or decisions, or arise out of other peoples or social influence. But the alley suggests limited possibilities or horizons, or present limited possibilities will be overcome with effort and initiative. The ease or difficulty in the alley shows the state of your present situation.

An alley with a dead end suggests concern about a tight situation that appears to have no easy way out.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What situation in my life does this describe – limited opportunities, lessened horizons?

What is the main action in the dream and is there any connection with situations in my life?

How would I describe my situation in the dream – i.e. happy, lost, searching, etc – and in what way does that link with my waking life?

Am I walking this alley or looking down it – if the latter, what opportunity or difficulty does this suggest?

Am I involved with other people, and if so in what way?

Where am I going or what a I trying to achieve?

Alligator Crocodile

Feelings or fears of being attacked or overwhelmed, possibly from within oneself, or by a powerful mother – i.e. ones internal dependence upon mother. There is so much about ourselves we do not know, and when a new aspect of us, or a much larger power within us emerges – like and great creature from our depths – we react to it with fear. See Autonomous complex

The alligator and crocodile often represent a hidden form of treachery, apparently harmless until it opens its mouth to eat us, such as that of a person spreading malicious rumours or trying to undermine us in some way. Another attack from deep within can be from repressed emotions.

But the alligator or crocodile as a dream creature is not the same as an external alligator. It is an enormous creature from your own depths, your inner self or core self – the part of you that you are not aware of and are frightened of. See core

The alligator or crocodile is similar to the serpent and depicts the power of the emotions, influences and experiences emerging from the unconscious. If you do not relate to your unconscious urges constructively, conflict can occur. Then you may feel fear of these forces within you – fear of being swallowed, or dragged into dark feelings. That is, of being carried away, or possessed, by fears, urges, ideas, arising from within, or fear of the irrational.

The Egyptians worshipped a crocodile as a guide to the dead in the underworld. It represents not only a threat, but also a wealth of wisdom about unconscious things. It possibly represented the forces of the unconscious because of the observation of the crocodile emerging from hidden depths to lay its eggs on the river bank. In this sense the crocodile or alligator in some dreams represents a personal confrontation with eternity. Depending upon the dream, the crocodile may well depict your fears about your inner hugeness. When we meet this it shows a personal awareness of merging with the many lives held in the collective unconscious. It is illustrated by the Christian idea of being cells in the body of Christ. We retain individual life, but know ourselves as part of an eternal life. This is possibly a natural stage in ageing, as our physical prowess and motivations fall away, this immense inner life begins to open to us. See The Life Will

As some people keep pet alligators, there might be a very personal meaning if one has actually kept an alligator.

Example: Now I looked at the large pool where the river surfaced. A woman swam in it, and was going to enter the tunnels. As I watched I saw some huge crocodiles swim toward her. With great speed and confidence she swam away, obviously being able to match the threat. A group of people in the pond, through their group strength, also dealt with the crocodiles.

Example: I can remember that in the dream another person and I, a male but very indistinct and shadowy, were facing mythical creatures in some sort of odyssey. A strange sort of crocodile or alligator type creature was supposedly attacking me. I had mixed feelings about this. Partly I felt there was nothing to fear about the creature, but another feeling was that it might be able to do some damage. In fact it was biting me across my chest, but all I felt was a very strong tickling feeling that made me laugh.

Example: Now a huge unknown creature began to enter into my awareness. I felt the presence of an enormous creature rising to the surface of something like a swamp or a body of water. At first I thought it might be a whale, but as I paid attention to what was happening it defined into a huge crocodile.

This huge creature looked at me and said, “Mathew, join me.”

I laughed at this because it was so huge, and with so many associations of swallowing things, that I said something like, “What do you mean join you? Don’t you mean that you want to eat me?”

The creature replied to me, “No. No, it’s not like that, I’m just like a submarine. I have all these lives in me. I have many, many lives in me. I am life. I contain the many. You can swim this ocean alone Mathew, if you wish. Or you can join me, you can join the many. You can always, if you choose to live your independent life again and  leave us.”

I laughed here because I had the image of me being independent, stripping off, diving over the side of the boat into the ocean and swimming off. It is something I have often done in the sea, swimming long distances alone, or off to an island out to sea, by myself.

I began to give myself to that great creature which I now understood as the collective unconscious, the unity of lives. It felt as if it was absolving me, much as I had experienced earlier on. (One of those strange and beautiful, and also moving coincidences just happened. I am reading this in using voice recognition, and it is proving to be very accurate. But in the sentence where I said that I felt it was – and the word was supposed to be absorbing me – the software used the word absolving. And here I am again, back in the ocean, weeping as I know there is no judgment on the life I have led so alone and cut off.)

Useful questions and hints:

What does the alligator represent to me?

What do I know about them?

Am I feeling threatened or carried away by any fears?

In what way is my intuition or awareness reaching beyond myself ?

Do I feel myself part of a larger whole?

See See Summming Up – Reaction to the unconscious – Secrets of Power Dreaming

Allow Allowed

This is a very powerful word. It usually deal with what you allow yourself to be, to express, to do and to dare. It can be the huge divide between satisfaction and a life of frustration. It also links with our decision making, how we decide to allow our sexual feelings, our love, our energy and our life to be. It also rests upon what we understand about yourself. Without a good understanding of what we are and how we work we can make a terrible mess of our decisions and what we allow. It is important to read What we Need To Remember about Dreams and Life also The Mammalian and Reptile Brain. The reason being that if we do not understand where our urges and drives emerge from we will not be able to decide what to allow to express and what to avoid, and that can lead to terrible results in our life.

The other thing about allowing is that if you have an allowing attitude to your core self or highest self it can bring amazing things to you because it allows you to grow beyond yourself. See The Keyboard Condition and The LifeStream.

Example: In fact I can allow myself to be free to wear something beautiful the way I feel about myself changes. It isn’t that I have to make a big effort to be good, I realised many years ago that growth happens naturally, and if I allow it the goodness shines out by itself.

Example: Actually the thing is I had to break up with my boy friend almost two years back because my parents didn’t allow me.

Example: I am in a room with 3 other women. I’m tired. It’s late at night. I sit on a woman’s lap. We are wearing costumes of some kind. She has her arms around me and kisses me. She tries to “French kiss” me. At first, I don’t let her. Then I do. It’s not a French kiss, like with tongues. It’s like touching the core of something. The lips, a regular kiss, were there and in the center, like in the center of a flower, was a moist, tender, very sensitive to feeling something. We touched “cores.” I felt slightly repelled but allowed it to happen. Something in my mind was assuring me this is O.K. It’s always been forbidden but now it is O.K. and nice to do. It is important to do. She holds me in a caring way.

The examples illustrate the differences between allowing and not allowing. The last example shows how the woman allows herself to experience her core self.

Useful Questions and Hints:

In the dream are you allowing or not allowing?

If you are allowing what is it you are allowing – ask yourself where does the impulse come from?

In the past when you allowed this to happen what was the results?

See People’s Experience of LifeStream and Talking As.

Alone

Being alone in a dream expresses one’s sense of isolation, feelings of loneliness or independence, depending on dream feelings. Feeling alone can be a sign of dependence, you need someone else to feel complete – though this seldom works out. See Beware of Love.

In many dreams being alone expresses a fear of attack or being overwhelmed. If you feel happily independent then you have achieved a great deal. See Individuation.

Idioms: Go it alone; alone together; alone = all-one.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do I feel okay about being alone in the dream or in waking life?

Are any feelings or fears about independence indicated or relevant?

What is the theme and drama of the dream adding to the aloneness?

See The Trackless Way; Identity And Dreams.

Alphabet

May refer to something basic to learn, being learned, or that you learned in childhood. It can also link with separate things that when put together in the right way can lead to an understanding or meaning.

But like numbers, the alphabet is the pieces outof which we make words and can express ourselves with. So it is the buildign blocks of enormous creativity. The thing is, can we put them together?

Useful questions are:

Could this be about ‘lessons in life’?

Am I or do I need to learn something from the beginning?

Are you feeling like a child in some way?

If you put the pieces of your experience together can you arrive at a clearer understanding?

Can you be creative?

Altar

Symbolises the sense of awe in face of life, nature or God. Also willingness, in face of this, to sacrifice some personal desires, to that of a universal desire. Schweitzer has said that a man who picks a worm out of a puddle is acting for life as whole, not just personal self.

Self giving – this can be a very positive action, or a sort of self punishment out of guilt. It can also represent standing before what you feel is of immense importance in life. Altars can link with a place of death, but also of rebirth, and thus a meeting with the universal life of which you are a part, and an connection with it through self sacrifice or surrender. The altar may be used to represent your feelings about other people sacrificing you to their needs. In which case you need to define what your needs are.

Standing before the altar is something we do on special occasions such as getting married, communion, birth or dying. So depending on the contents and context of the dream, there may be a reference to one of these. In this sense the altar is a link between the visible and invisible, conscious and unconscious elements of you. Like the sarcophagus it can also represent death and rebirth. As such it is a place of change, and may be a play on the word ‘alter’.

What is on the altar: As the altar is basically a point of transformation and sacrifice, what is on the altar may suggest what you give the highest value to in your life, and what you worship; perhaps what you are sacrificing.

See: death and rebirtharchetypes; church.

Gradually my being became quieter and quieter. My breathing slowed down so much it seemed almost non-existent. I had a feeling of my peripheral, changing self, slowly dying in ashes to reveal what all the world is seeking. I felt that as my peripheral self died, there was the possibility of this other part of my being shining through more brightly. Brenda was still beside me, and I had the sense of my body being an altar on which the exterior me had burnt away, revealing an eternal quality, and Brenda, other people, receiving it, worshipping it. There was nothing personal or worthy of self praise about this, because all had this central being. But I never really seemed to experience this thing. It never shone out. In the end I wondered if what I was experiencing was yet another cul-de-sac one is led to believe the Self is found through – that is by letting the outer self die.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I ‘giving up to God’, or some higher power?

Does this represent something I hold in the most high esteem?

Is there a transforming influence in my life?

What is being altered?

Do I feel I am sacrificing myself in some way?

See Processing Dreams.

Ambulance

Most dreams about an ambulance involve feelings of emergency, or panic. Often the dream involves some injury or life threatening situation to someone, so therefore concerns the stress felt by some part of our personality. See: accident.

How to deal with such anxiety is important and it can be done – but not without work.  

Useful Questions and Hints:

What has happened, or is happening, to make you need external help or feel in an emergency situation?

Are you feeling anxious about a family member of someone close?

What emergency or injury is shown in the dream, and how might this relate to your daily life?

Is it easy to get help in the dream – if not are you feeling alone and unsupported? It might help to read and use Dealing with Fear.

Ambush

If you are being ambushed: Anxieties about how other people are relating to you. It could be you are suffering paranoia about being a victim; or possible difficulties in relationships or work. Certainly it seems as if you feel you are in a difficult situation and maybe surprised. You can try using the following to change the situation: Carry the Dream Forward.

If you are staging an ambush: Desires to get the upper hand of a situation, or trying to outwit or take advantage of some aspect of yourself or someone else.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do you feel trapped or compromised in any way?

Do you feel somebody is trying to get the better of you in some way?

Are you in some sort of battle with someone or an organisation?

Perhaps this is a time to look around carefully and access the situation?

Try using Processing Dreams.

America

If you live in America then it expresses your feelings and experiences of the culture and politics you are immersed in. What is  America for you, a land of opportunity and freedom, or a land of subjugation? It will help to define what it is by using Talking As.

If the dreamer does not live in America and is not American: Could associate with opportunity; material wealth; dreams to do with success, whether in love or business; recognition; extremes. See: abroad.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What do you associate with America?

What is my view or experience of it?

What are the events and setting of the dream saying about my relationship with America?

If I take out the word America from the dream and write down what my feelings are, what would I say?

It might help if you use Processing Dreams.

Amethyst

Common beliefs about the amethyst is that it has an influence connected with healing; and dreams. Moses described it as a symbol of the Spirit of God. It is also said to offer protection against drunkenness – in fact the Greek word ‘amethystos’ mean ‘not intoxicated’. See: jewels.

Like any jewelery it can have a lot of personal associations, such as who gave it, what associations with family, etc.

It is said to be a bringer of dreams and visions and protection against being carried away by spiritual elation or inner influences. Also a healing influence.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I feelings about the amethyst in the dream, and how can I translate that into my waking life?

Can you define what you believe the jewel’s influence is before you dreamt of it?

Does it have anything to do with wealth?

What happened in the dream that might give clues to the dream meaning?

What part is the amethyst playing in the dream, and what does that suggest?

Use Processing Dreams to aid in doing that.

Ammunition

This may indicate pent up feelings that if expressed could be harmful to yourself or someone else. Or it could suggest information or feelings of being ‘armed’ against someone else’s attack or as protection against the world. As such it points to attitudes or strong feelings that you use to protect your own feeling or vulnerability.

If it is something someone else has: Things that you feel others can use against you, such as lies, criticism, anger, etc.

If it is something you have: Attitudes or thoughts you use to bolster your confidence; things you feel or think that could be used to wound other people or even yourself; ways you defend against other peoples attack.

Lacking ammunition: Feeling without hope regarding a difficulty you are involved in, perhaps an emerging conflict with a partner or at work.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What part does the ammunition play in my dream, and can I identify what that reflects of my daily life?

What do I feel about the ammunition or bullets, and where does that feeling arise in my life?

What might this do to me, or how am I reacting to it?

What am I using or planning to use the ammunition for or against?

Am I using the ammunition in the dream – if so what against, and how does that relate to my waking life?

What do I feel about the ammunition in the dream, and when do I experience those feelings in waking.

Use Talking As to help define the dream meaning.

Amnesia

The example below says only too clearly how one may often forget things that are so important, and fall into old habits. The woman David was sleeping with was someone from his past he was unhappy with. A dream may often show this forgetfulness as the experience of sudden recall after a long period of not remembering. Both the loss of memory and the recall illustrate very real ways the mind works. Things that may have been of great importance to us, or caused powerful feelings at one time, are subsequently forgotten. Such experiences may not even be taken into account when making present decisions, and so literally one has a sort of amnesia regarding them.

Example: ‘I am sleeping rough in a garden with a woman I do not love. I think I should try to make the best of the situation, but my feelings against it are too strong. Then I decide I don’t ever want to live like that again and tear up the mattress we slept on. As I do this I realise, as if waking from amnesia, that Pat lives just across the road. She has specially moved there because of our love. I realise with horror I had forgotten and may have lost her.’ David H.

And here is another example of forgetting the awful things we have done.

Example: I was in a large house – probably the kitchen. I discovered a lock, bright and sparkling, that had its keyhole covered up. On it were drawn pictures of a young woman. I felt it was a part of the puzzle regarding the big house, and belonged to a room that was now so locked, and even the keyhole covered, that it had been forgotten and lost. Finding the lock was rediscovering the mysteries of the house. The room and lock associated with love for the young woman depicted on the lock – a very sentimental love. I felt very emotional just looking at the pictures. This part of the dream is very difficult to remember clearly, but there was a wooden snake and a rat that were eating breadcrumbs. I felt that the snake would have swallowed the rat if it could have moved faster, but it was hindered by its woodenness.

Then I was looking in a big cupboard, and found a clue to where the room of the lock was. This was to the number of salt sellers or something in the cupboard. A young man came in, he was Lord Montague, a homosexual. He said something like, “Hello, been up all night?” I couldn’t understand at first, then saw that the curtains were drawn, and it was daylight outside. I was surprised, and thought I must have been in unconscious, or in amnesia, and not known what I was doing. There was also something about having had homosexual relationship while unaware of what I was doing. The next thing was that I, as someone else, entered the “lost” room, with Montague. In it a young refined and lovely woman was kept prisoner by myself. This was because of a supposed adultery, of which she was in all likelihood innocent. I treated her as a prisoner, a thing, a coarse animal, to be hurt and belittled emotionally in every way my sentiments could. The servants were told that she had chosen to live the life of a nun. I made her strip off her clothes in front of the other man, and washed her, roughly. She was terribly sensitive about this, but endured it. Montague apologised to her again and again for the part he was playing in this. She told him not to feel too guilty. He also asked her how she did not go mad. She said not to talk of madness, as it was always a threat, but she had developed a true religious outlook and patience, that protected her.

One of the easiest ways
To find out who is a psuedopod
And who is a real person
Involves a simple memory test.
Ask the person if they
Can remember their childhood.
If they say, “Oh yes, I remember
My aunt Nellie telling me how I
Used to wet the bed.
I remember that.”
Well that is not real memory.
It is more like having photographs
That you are acquainted with.

Ask them if they remember being a baby.
Ask if they remember being in the womb.
Ask them if they remember their life in eternity.
The real self remembers all this.
After all it emerged from eternity,
Lived in the womb,
And experienced all those years until the present.

If you are suffering amnesia,
You are probably a psuedopod.

As for me, I was desperate to find my way back.
I saw the signs of my maladjustment
Everywhere I looked.
It was difficult to accept those signs.
Painful!
They were like being stabbed
With a hot knife.
They were in places
You don’t want to be dug.
They hurt too much – old wounds.
That is my story.

This is ground zero.
I am a reporter on the scene.
It’s rough going at the moment.
Maybe we are both pseudopods,
But I hold out my hand to you.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is my dream suggesting I have forgotten?

What has led me to forget this?

Is there someone or something I want to forget – and if so why?

The technique Talking As may help.

Amoeba

May relate to blind urges; basic cellular processes in your body; fundamental levels of awareness – i.e. being barely aware of something, but acting instinctively, or it could relate to sperm or ovum or reproduction. This might also relate to feeling your way instinctively in what you are doing. Amoeba’s engulf their prey, and if you know this it might figure in your dream in some way.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I sensing from my body that links with the dream action?

Are there clues in the theme and drama of my dream as to what part in my life the amoeba is playing?

If I imagine myself as the amoeba what do I feel or experience? For help doing this see Processing Dreams.

Amputate Amputation Amputee

To lose the use of, or cut off by repressing, whatever the limb or body part represents. It can also suggest a loss of skill, ability or adequacy, sexual or otherwise. The amputation could also depict a fear of losing or of having lost whatever the limb or body part suggests. In some cases a depiction of old trauma that has left one less than fully capable

The dream might also express a desire to be inadequate in order to have an excuse to withdraw from the demands of life.

Amputation dreamt after having a broken limb or the cast removed: Fears regarding being inadequate after having only one good limb; the difficulty of having to adjust to being healthy – more can be demanded of us when healthy.

Example: This is not a dream, but is a powerful example of how the unconscious can produce very real sense of experiencing something as physically true, that is a mental phenomena. The account is by Phillip Zimbardo in the book Psychology and Life, published by Scott, Foresman and Company.

It was my first day back to work after recovering from a traumatic automobile accident. I was lucky to be alive with only torn ligaments in my leg and a concussion: the driver had been killed by the impact of a head-on collision. As I hobbled up the three flights of stairs supported by a crutch, my initial joy of returning to school was suddenly suspended. With each step I took a strange sensation occurred: I could ‘feel’ myself BECOMING my younger brother, George. Not IMAGINE ‘as if’ I were George, but being transformed physically to be him.

I perceived my face changing to be his face and my body doing likewise. My limp became more pronounced, and it took great strength to climb the last flight. In a panic, I shut myself in my office, not wanting anyone to witness this strange transformation. I avoided looking at my reflection in the window for fear I would see his face and not mine. Had I really become my brother or was I MERELY hallucinating?

Time passed during which I tried frantically to relax, ‘to pull myself together,’ and make sense of my distorted sense impressions. After all, I was a normal, serious scientist type not given to such flights of fancy. I lived by the reality principle.

My secretary and colleagues knocked and came into the office before I could say I was busy. They were worried by my abrupt disappearing act. They were relieved to see I was ‘my old self again,’ and I was relieved to see them responding to me as if I were Phil and not George. A glance at my reflection confirmed my hope. I had changed back, ‘or was no longer George….or George was no longer manifesting himself in me.’ Whatever? Weird, no? But why?

When we were children, George had infantile paralysis and for a time had to wear leg braces and walk with crutches. I would accompany him to therapy sessions and observe his frustration, embarrassment, and anger at not being able to function normally. Since we were only eighteen months apart in age, I could readily empathise with his feelings. I may have also felt guilty at being glad I too was not crippled. Once I recall volunteering to exchange places with him in the swimming pool exercises, but the nurse chided me, ‘being crippled is not fun and games young man.’ I was about four at the time.

As I hobbled up the stairs to my office some twenty five years later, the pattern of feedback sensory stimulation reactivated this pre-recorded motor action plan. Memories of George’s posture and movement were enacted. I had retained mimicry responses of his motor activity that I had observed so intensely. Now I was changing places with him, but not consciously and not volitionally. The suddenness and vividness of the hallucination was frightening because it was so real, yet at the same time contradicted my knowledge of reality. See: Body.

Amputating someone else’s body part: The other person could easily represent a facet of yourself you are denying full expression. If so define what you associate with that person by using the amplification method or role playing. It could also suggest a desire to injure someone; or a way you cut off their ability to interact with you or communicate.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I denying or repressing an important facet of myself?

Do I have any sense of not being adequate in any way suggested by the dream?

Am I angry or hurt about something enough to deny my full expression?

Have I made a decision at any time never to allow certain things in my life again?

Use Talking As to help.

Amulet

This may indicate something like the placebo effect, in which your belief acts as a healing and powerful support. The amulet focuses your feelings of confidence and gives you power to live and act more fully.

Useful questions are:

What is it the amulet is protecting me against?

Do I feel the amulet has any power – if so what is it protecting me against?

What is the action of the dream suggesting?

Amusement Park Carnival or Arcade

The playful or childlike exploration of experience. But it also has elements of the unknown or dangerous hidden behind a colourful exterior. In some dreams it might suggests the escapism we enter into sometimes in a relationship or in general, immersing ourselves in the noise and colour of life. The fairground can also be a testing oneself to define self image. This because some rides need a certain amount of courage or ability to face new experiences. There is also great variety here, and so might point to the varied experiences we are meeting and trying to find our way through or understand. See: fairground.

Particular rides:

Things like the merry go round might suggest a whirl of events, or even things spinning out of control. The dodgems or bumper cars involve the way we interact with others and avoid or bump into them. The rollercoaster might depict thrilling or dangerous risks you take or are exposed to, or point to sexual excitement. The ghost ride is to test your courage and to seek a partner.

Fear arising: You have a sense of the pervading dangers underlying the surface impression of events. Perhaps there is a fear of the unknown emerging even in what appears to be pleasurable.

If enjoying yourself: Enjoyment of the varied experiences being met at the moment.

Example: For the past year I have had recurring dreams about fairground rides. Occasionally members of my family, including my father have died on the rides. When I’m on the ride I’ve survived, but I can sense danger all around me. This dream is beginning to bother me. I am 15 years old. Laura

In the dream Laura is most likely trying to develop her own independent stance in life. About the age of seven through our teens we confront the realities of the external world. We realise family will die at some uncertain time as we age. The stance needed is one that enables us to live life fully, without being crippled by fears and insecurities. The fairground represents the ups and downs of life, its variety and uncertainties. There IS danger in almost everything we do in life. But there is also opportunity and the possibility of deep satisfaction. The challenge is what YOU will make of it? How will you play your part? Will you forever feel surrounded by danger, and thereby not fully express yourself? Or can you laugh and love while the ride goes on?

Useful Questions and Hints:

Are there situations in my life that I take seriously, but may only be superficial?

Is there a menacing aspect in my life that appears harmless on the surface?

What am I doing or looking for in this place?

Do I have a satisfying relationship with what I experience, or can I improve it?

What is happening in my life that connects with its up and downs and variety?

Use to Acting on your dream explore the many possible meanings.

Anaesthetic

This suggests an attitude or experience that is making you unconscious of what is going on. Something is deadening your feelings and sensitiveness.

This might indicate an experience of what it is like to die, or show an avoidance of painful emotions. Or it may depict you are deadening pain, or that there is great pain to deaden.

Being anesthetised can also be a way a dream illustrates the shifting from waking awareness to meeting the very different world of your unconscious inner world.

The reason anaesthesia may be linked with death is that the ego feels itself overwhelmed and thrust into the unknown or unconsciousness by the action of the drug. This may be felt as pleasant or unpleasant depending upon how well you relate to the loss of your waking power or will. See the two powers.

Films often use chloroform or an injection of an anaesthetic in a scene where the person is overpowered, and it can have the same meaning in your dream.

Useful questions are:

Am I ignoring feelings and emotions, or feeling emotionally numb?

Is something leading me to feel overpowered?

Does my dream give me an experience of what it is like to die?

Did this lead me into a shifted awareness – an entrance into my unconscious?

Try using Processing Dreams to understand your dream more fully.

Analyst

If someone who is helping you analyse your dreams appears in a dream, they usually represent the wisdom of your unconscious, or the difficulties you face in yourself.

An analyst, psychologist, psychiatrist in our dream depicts our self assessment. Depending on the dream, the self assessment may be supportive or self destructive. Our mind can transform itself in a number of ways. Sometimes one new piece of information, or a new mental discipline, can change the quality of all mental life. The analyst represents such power to transform, as well as the often avoided self awareness. Can also suggest fear about ones own mental strength and health; a source of wisdom; insight.

But it depends on what you feel about an analyst. Do you feel your relationship with the analyst it good; or is it a lot of money for a lot of talk; or is it paying through the nose for having someone listen to you? See: Psychoanalyst

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I getting real insight from my inner analyst?

Could I use him/her to give me more information by having a dialogue with my dream analyst. See Dream Dialogue.

Can I use any information to my advantage?

What is the subject of the dream – i.e. what aspect of life or behaviour?

Am I in conflict with the analyst – if so what is it I am fighting against?

Use Processing Dreams for more information.

Ancestors Forebears – Dreaming Of

The cause and intricate web of cultural and family influences, physically and psychologically, that your body and personality arose from. If it is a particular ancestor you dreamt of, then the personal associations with that person need to be explored. See Explore Dream Character

For instance an uncle may have been renowned for womanising, so would represent that tendency.

Ancestors can also link with deeply buried tendencies we have unconsciously inherited from the long past. Sometimes they point to the fate/karma we are dealing with – they are the difficulties or wonderful traits that arise in our life, that we cannot honestly see have been developed or collected in this lifetime. See: Conjuring Trick – guardian of the threshold.

Just as a fox cub ‘learns’ how to hunt from its parents without words, so we absorb the deeply etched negative and positive survival strategies of our parents simply by being around them. It is passed on for generation after generations. They never need to talk about it because usually the parents are unaware of it themselves. If genes come into it anywhere, they perhaps create the reflex response that instinctively draws in the survival tactics that perhaps even our parents themselves have never really been aware they live by. In doing this the higher animals learn what cannot be passed on as instinct, what is not ‘hard wired’ into them. This holds in it a tremendous advantage because ‘hard wiring’ takes a long time. Through this faster method we learn what to be afraid of, what to eat, how to hunt, because the lessons learned by pain through many generations are exhibited in our parents behaviour in dealing with events. This is the information we may obtain through dreaming of our ancestors. See The Conjuring Trick

We also have a huge heritage from the seed that grew in our mother’s womb. That seed didn’t suddenly appear, but was the collected experience of life from the beginning of life on Earth. So you as a personality are mostly the memories of this life stored in your brain, but without knowing it, you unconsciously have a huge past.

Example:  When I opened the door of the room I was overwhelmed by such a huge awareness of what had been left me as an inheritance by my ancestors that I sobbed for many minutes.  It wasn’t pain causing me to weep, but the intensity of what I experienced.  The strength, persistence, ability to love, as imperfect as it was, the sharpness of mind, the ability to exist within a modern community, were all gifts hammered out of raw human material by my forebears, enabling me to take the few further steps in life that I have. See House of the Ancestors for a fuller explanation.

Example: One of the things I am seeing at that the moment about symbols and dreams is how beautifully they hold tremendous amounts of information and meaning. I am thinking at the moment about the soil, the garden – they are so rich in meaning. Whatever our forebears did, whether they were deceitful and lying or courageous and strong, whether they had honour or were cowards, whatever they did, and perhaps over time they did everything, their lives were the drama that brought us into being. Their lives have given us the substance of our body and our personality. We are the heirs of that drama. What we grew from is what they left us. It was the heritage from the past. In dreams this is often represented as a piece of land, a garden. It was the piece of land – is the piece of land – that you inherited. Whatever that land might be, whatever its condition, that is what you have. Whether it is beautifully rich with orchards growing on it, or whether it is covered in rocks and brambles, that is your heritage.

Bemoaning the condition or being proud of the condition doesn’t change it. The thing is to take up your tools and develop that land. Let us fertilise it. Let us honour it. We can make it rich. We can enrich it because it is the real stuff and has in it all the potentials of life. Because of that, as rocky or as thorny as it might be, we have all that we need. On that land we can let the tree of life grow.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I learning or feeling about the ancestor?

Does the theme of the dream point to a facet of my life my ancestral connection is linked with?

If I imagine myself as the ancestor or ancestral dwelling, what arises in me?

Try Talking As to gain real insight into the ancestor.

It is so important to know the message of your ancestors that it is worth while using Processing Dreams.

Anchor Anchored

Some part of your make-up that holds you firm to a task or code, such as determination, love, etc. But it has a deeper meaning, for the anchor reaches the sea bed, or deepest part of your unconscious self, or inner self. Thus it suggests a power of resolve coming from deep within. Or it might suggest being tied down.

By itself the anchor represents stabilising influences, hope, steadfastness, perhaps attitudes or qualities, or even a relationship, which bring about the ability to ride changes and destabilising influences.

The anchor might also suggest reaching deep into the unknown of the ocean – the unconscious. See: boat.

To be anchored to something is different to anchor. It means to be fixed and in a position of influence. It can mean a relationship or situation to which you are fixed in a powerful way, positively or negatively.

If the anchor is not holding firmly or is not sound in any way, it suggests weaknesses in ones ability to meet changes and currents which influence the dreamer. Influences that are weakening your security, or difficulties in meeting the influences pulling at you.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is your dream anchor secure or shifting – if it is, try to determine what powerful influences are influencing you?

Has something given me a greater feeling of security?

Is something preventing me from going places?

Try Talking As to gain real insight into the anchor or dream.

Ancient Antique Old

Anything old or ancient suggests it has existed for a long time, so it carries an enormous amount of experience, an enormous imprint of the past. This often links with wisdom or treasures of realisation, perhaps revealed by intuition.

But the dreamt of ancient or old thing may be pointing to a period of your life relating to the period the ‘old’ thing or person represents. It may also depict an attitude or way of life you have seen portrayed in historical drama or in a book or film. It can point to your past and the different lives you have lived – baby, youth, lover, parent, provider, or what is established and well worn, such as tradition and wisdom of folklore.

An old or antique building or place can sometimes relate to the incredible age of your mind. There is in each of us an intuition or sense that shows us or reveals to us if we care to be aware, that our mind is not simply new with our birth. Its contents, through language, inherited customs, and genetic material, are incredibly old. Exploring such dreams of antiquity can often bring to awareness this ancient heritage. See The Conjuring Trick; ancestors.

But old can be connected with many things. In looking through a collection of dreams I find ‘old clothes’ which related to old attitudes and behaviour; ‘old shells’ from the war which indicated past difficult feelings and experiences; an ‘old woman’ who turned out to be a mother; his ‘old inadequate self’; ‘old group’ was about confronting my old social values; a ‘lady with big breasts and hips’ who has sex with the dreamer; another ‘old lady’ who is told to start work. This turned out to be an expression of the energies tied up negatively, the female love energies, the emotions, so they are no longer knotted in the problem, can work in ones outer relationships and activities, and so on. So it is important to see if you can feel any connection with the old thing or person. Perhaps using Being the Person or Thing; Talking As will help.

Old building: Past way of life; former life with family or another person. It can also sometimes link with ‘past dwelling places’. In other words old ways of life or even past lives. If it is very old it could be considered a house of the ancestors. See House of the Ancestors.

Old House or house previously lived in: A previous set of values or way of life, sometimes even a suggestion of influences from lives previous to your present one. If you can date the time you lived there, it probably is about the important developments or experiences that occurred there.

Old people: Wisdom; mother or father; past experience; traditions; old age or feelings about ageing; death. Also to do with what might be old and no longer useful in your life.

Old things or furniture: Past or outworn ways of life or activities. Or attitudes and a way of life lived at the time.

Example: ‘I am standing in a book shop. It is a long established business. As I look at the books I find two which are about the life of Christ. They are leather bound and hand written – quite ancient. Both seem to me to be about the author’s own inner life. I believe one is written from a religious viewpoint and the other from a more occult one. I am not attracted to either.’ Bill O.

 Bill is looking back on past attitudes, one religious, one occult, which had been big parts of his earlier life.

 Example: I am in an unknown old building with unsafe floors. I vaguely feel it belongs to my long dead father. Around me are rats, which have young. I am hysterical because they keep multiplying. People with me, unknown, although my husband is there, don’t seem to care about them. I usually wake shouting because one of the rats touches me. I am not frightened of rats when awake. Dorothy C.

The age of the building suggests there is some connection from a long time ago. The dream goes on to say the connection is with the long dead father. This is unclear because Dorothy has not yet made it conscious what the fear is that arose in herself from her relationship with her father.

ancient Usually suggests contact with parts of our being older than the development of the conscious self – such as cellular wisdom; life processes; accepted traditions or ways of life; wisdom of the unconscious.

antique Elements of our past experience which might be worth keeping; wisdom of unconscious. See: age.

Useful Questions and Hints:

How did I feel about the old or antique in my dream?

Have I any difficult feelings about my age or getting old?

Where did the antique appear in my dream?

See Being the Person or Thing – The Conjuring Trick – Life Changes – Background

Angel

This can indicate the positive side of relationship with your mother,  or it can be about your religious concepts. Sometimes it deals with feelings about or insight into death or even a need for a parent figure to guide or instruct in decision making, such as wisdom arising from your wider awareness. The Hebrew word for angel is malak, meaning messenger. As a symbol it would therefore represent your intuition of a wider truth than that encompassed by your present personal experience.

Traditionally there were many angels, and some of the greatest were said to be messengers for particular things, like the angel of death, or the angel of love. Such old concepts still hold sway in our unconscious, so it is helpful to consider if the angel in the dream has some particular quality, or is communicating a particular message. Also consider whether you are in accord or in conflict with the angel. If in accord it suggests that some deeply felt intuition is accepted by you. If in conflict then something that is powerfully influential deep within you is being rejected and is creating an internal conflict.

In a real way, because dream images arise from our own potential and are in some way expressions of us, angels are about the conscious use of our own faculties without the waving of magic wands. There is no need to attempt conjuring of spirits or angels. We are an expression of life and as such hold all possibilities within us. So the question is, how can we work with ourselves here and now, with our own psychological and biological processes? How can we help our being to heal itself and move further? See messengers

Well, even if we take that point of view, it is still helpful to enlist the help of such dream images. After all, dream link with a very deep part of us, a part not limited by logic, thinking and the past experience. As Einstein said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift”. So use your imagination and follow it where it leads. See Travelling Your Dreams and Using Visualisation.

Example: Then I was involved in the second group and at some point felt that I needed to demonstrate the ability to fly. So I ascended into the air and flew around the room. Hardly anybody took any notice of this except toward the end one small boy with large brown eyes was looking at me out of a large window somewhere above the hall in which the play was taking place. He was leaning against the glass looking at me. So I looked him straight in the eye and rose straight upwards with the most wonderful feeling of exhilaration shared with the child.

Then I became lucid and began to shift the dream in a particular direction. Firstly I brought the man and his wife together with myself in a communal embrace. Then together we lifted off into the air in flight, and in front of the children performing the play we did the most beautiful and colourful aero acrobatics. As we did these we were able to produce coloured lights flowing from us. Then in the end I created a great ball of coloured light that I broke into angels flying in the air and descending to touch the watchers. Then again into the ball which shattered into tens of thousands of coloured and shining pieces that gently fell like snowflakes touching those watching and disappearing into them sharing the wonder and beauty I felt flowing through me.

Example: Dreamt I was dead and was now an angel, but I was asleep. I seemed to be a separate witness to this, watching my sleeping angel self. The angel self also seemed to be neither male or female.

Example: Before I knew I was ill with cancer I dreamt that an angel came to me and explained that before we are born we are all angels and are without limitations. When we are born we take on a life of limitations in order to learn something important to us. Then when we die at the end of that life we return to being an angel. All the limitations of life then disappear again.’

Idioms: Guardian angel; like an angel; on the side of the angels; fools rush in where angels fear to tread. See: religion and dreams.

Useful Questions and Hints:

How does the angel appear and how?

What is my own belief about angels?

Am I aware of receiving a message or information?

Did the angel, even without words, communicate something to me?

Use acting on your dream to explore the wonder of it.

Angels

This can indicate the positive side of relationship with your mother,  or it can be about your religious concepts. Sometimes it deals with feelings about or insight into death or even a need for a parent figure to guide or instruct in decision making, such as wisdom arising from your wider awareness. The Hebrew word for angel is malak, meaning messenger. As a symbol it would therefore represent your intuition of a wider truth than that encompassed by your present personal experience.

Traditionally there were many angels, and some of the greatest were said to be messengers for particular things, like the angel of death, or the angel of love. Such old concepts still hold sway in our unconscious, so it is helpful to consider if the angel in the dream has some particular quality, or is communicating a particular message. Also consider whether you are in accord or in conflict with the angel. If in accord it suggests that some deeply felt intuition is accepted by you. If in conflict then something that is powerfully influential deep within you is being rejected and is creating an internal conflict.

Angels do not need wings to fly, but the church has added them and also the image of a male god up in the sky. Also most angels are shown as female, but again that is make believe.

Example: Dreamt I was dead and was now an angel, but I was asleep. I seemed to be a separate witness to this, watching my sleeping angel self. The angel self also seemed to be neither male or female.

This story, which was told to me by a doctor who wit­nessed it from beginning to end in the small Idaho hospital where it happened. A woman hed given birth to a baby with severe complications. When the child was delivered, he was found to have a severe brain hemorrhage.

The child spent several months in the intensive care unit of this small town because the mother did not want to transfer him to a large city where she would not be allowed to spend full time with him. Doctors decided not to encourage her to move the child since they felt the injuries were so massive that no treatment would be possible.

The child had severe cerebral palsy secondary to brain damage and a seizure disorder that had shown up on an abnormal EEG. These are afflic­tions from which children simply don’t recover. If they survive infancy, they spend their lives severely retarded.

The doctors told her their prognosis, but still the mother stayed with her child. By all accounts she was with the boy almost twenty-four hours a day for sev­eral months. Perhaps it was the strain of the ordeal or sleep deprivation that led to what happened next.

Late one night, she said, a Being of Light came into her hospital room. Later she described it as having the shape of a person, but not the features of either a male or a female. It glowed with a cold, gray light as though light were being beamed through an ice cube.

“Your son will be all right,” the being said.

The woman said that she felt as though love were being poured into her body. “It was marvelous.”

The next day she shared this vision with her medical team. She was especially excited because the being had assured her that her son was going to be normal. Could they please do another EEG to see if anything had happened? They repeated the brain-wave test and came up with the startling results: normal. The child had made a full recovery.”

“That the Divine is the same in things greatest and least, may be shown by means of heaven and by means of an angel there. The Divine in the whole heaven and the Divine in an angel is the same; therefore even the whole heaven may appear as one angel. So is it with the church, and with a man of the church. The greatest form receptive of the Divine is the whole heaven together with the whole church; the least is an angel of heaven and a man of the church. Sometimes an entire society of heaven has appeared to me as one angel-man; and it was told that it may appear like a man as large as a giant, or like a man as small as an infant; and this, because the Divine in things greatest and least is the same. ” Eckhart

In a real way, because dream images arise from our own potential and are in some way expressions of us, angels are about the conscious use of our own faculties without the waving of magic wands. There is no need to attempt conjuring of spirits or angels. We are an expression of life and as such hold all possibilities within us. So, the question is, how can we work with ourselves here and now, with our own psychological and biological processes? How can we help our being to heal itself and move further? See messengers

Well, even if we take that point of view, it is still helpful to enlist the help of such dream images. After all, dreams link with a very deep part of us, a part not limited by logic, thinking and the past experience. As Einstein said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift”. So, use your imagination and follow it where it leads. See Travelling Your Dreams and Using Visualisation.

Example: Then I was involved in the second group and at some point felt that I needed to demonstrate the ability to fly. So, I ascended into the air and flew around the room. Hardly anybody took any notice of this except toward the end one small boy with large brown eyes was looking at me out of a large window somewhere above the hall in which the play was taking place. He was leaning against the glass looking at me. So, I looked him straight in the eye and rose straight upwards with the most wonderful feeling of exhilaration shared with the child.

Then I became lucid and began to shift the dream in a particular direction. Firstly I brought the man and his wife together with myself in a communal embrace. Then together we lifted off into the air in flight, and in front of the children performing the play we did the most beautiful and colourful aero acrobatics. As we did these we were able to produce coloured lights flowing from us. Then in the end I created a great ball of coloured light that I broke into angels flying in the air and descending to touch the watchers. Then again into the ball which shattered into tens of thousands of coloured and shining pieces that gently fell like snowflakes touching those watching and disappearing into them sharing the wonder and beauty I felt flowing through me.

Example: Dreamt I was dead and was now an angel, but I was asleep. I seemed to be a separate witness to this, watching my sleeping angel self. The angel self also seemed to be neither male or female.

Example: Before I knew I was ill with cancer I dreamt that an angel came to me and explained that before we are born we are all angels and are without limitations. When we are born we take on a life of the limitations of our body in order to learn something important to us. Then when we die at the end of that life we return to being an angel. All the limitations of life then disappear again.’

Idioms: Guardian angel; like an angel; on the side of the angels; fools rush in where angels fear to tread. See: religion and dreams.

 Useful Questions and Hints:

How does the angel appear and how?

What is my own belief about angels?

Am I aware of receiving a message or information?

Did the angel, even without words, communicate something to me?

Use acting on your dream to explore the wonder of it.

Anger Angry

Whether you show or repress anger in dreams it is important. This is because like any other basic or instinctive response, anger uses tremendous resources of emotional and physical energy. The repression of emotional energy can be a key factor in the breakdown of health, and in the lack of positive and creative self expression. Blocked emotional energy tends to attack your sense of wellbeing and body if it is stopped from external expression.

In some dreams enormous anger is expressed, but it is accompanied by a sense of frustration because the anger brings no satisfaction. This may indicate it is still linked with childhood dependence, when our personal well-being was intricately bound with our parents, and we depended upon them for our good feelings. Of course, in some extreme situations in adult life, such as being a prisoner who is maltreated, our anger may actually be incapable of changing things, but expressing it in a safe way can do wonders.

Anger may be a way of hiding ones vulnerability or real pain. In this case, it is important to feel the anger and discover what is underneath it. Sometimes deep feelings from childhood emerge once the anger has been felt. Such a surfacing of encapsulated emotions usually brings about deep insight into why certain traits are so powerful in your nature.

Holding the idea that you do not need to restrain your anger in dreams can produce enormous changes in your dreams and in your everyday life. Tests with women who had dreams in which they failed to express anger, and who, in everyday life were passive in situations calling for assertiveness, showed that when they learned to express anger in their dreams, they became more easily assertive in daily life. See: aggression as it has useful information; hostility.

As an example of what anger can do in the body, I quote a piece from a man’s journal.

William massaged at the area and discovered a pea sized nodule. It was like a concentrated lump of pain. When he pressed I started moaning, crying, and that one point, laughing. I realised that not being influenced by anyone was a defence. Underneath that was the laughing. As William continued words started coming up by themselves. The cries of pain were real, but without linking with feelings. I felt this massage method could release the pain, but it would be like a dry labour, long and unnecessarily painful.

Later I found quite few of these nodules of pain on my back, and then I learnt how to really express anger from my past by beating hell out of cushions with a stick. Then slowly the nodules disappeared.

Example: Dreamt I was in the house in which I has lived with my with my ex wife. A toilet leaked out of its back. Beyond it I saw a room I had not known before. There was an old range fire. I thought it would heat the house. The room is cold and dusty, but I felt I could make it into a workroom for therapy.

While exploring the dream about a leaking toilet I discovered the following feelings and memories. For a long time I could get no feeling response about the dream. Then I drifted into a fantasy. In it I remembered times when I had frightened my two young sons by suggestions of my unexpressed violence; like the time I held my sons neck. I looked into his eyes and knew that with a flick of my fingers I could kill him. He looked at me and knew. My children must have known they were dealing with a dangerous animal. Survival for them meant the cunning, bravery or abasement necessary to deal with such a creature.

With these feelings alive I got into the room that was previously unknown and the toilet. The toilet was all the undealt with shit which arose between my wife and I while we lived together. The room immediately reminded me of the way I had described my awareness of my sexual stagnation during the first dream – like a room that had been closed for years and had been unopened. Everything had been left as it was. Perhaps a murder had taken place, and the powerful aura pervaded the whole place.

I had wanted to murder my wife. Unable to leave home because of my strong parental drive to shield the children from the agony of my going – unable to love my wife in my staying – torn between my own urges, I had wanted to kill her – truly a dangerous animal.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do I satisfy my anger in the dream? (If not it is worth expressing it in some way while awake. Use a rolled up newspaper to hit an armchair or cushion with. See if you can get the feelings in the dream flowing.)

Can I feel what this anger connects with in waking life.

Is there a way I can assert myself without destructive anger?

It may  be useful to use Carry the Dream Forward and us Processing Dreams.

It can help to deal with anger and aggression by using The Cushion Technique.

Angling

This shows you creating a receptive state of consciousness that allows the deep insights or processes within you to become known. You are literally dipping into your unconscious levels of awareness to bring insights and intuitions to the surface. So you are trying to find spiritual nourishment, ‘fishing’ for ideas or information. You might even be fishing for compliments. See: fish and sea creatures.

When we fish in a dream or usually represents us creating a receptive state of consciousness which allows the us to find things that are usually difficult to ‘catch’ with our normal mind. So it is like trying to bring things up from our memory that we have either forgotten or perhaps never ever realised before. So it is like trying to find spiritual nourishment. It might in some dream show us ‘fishing’ for ideas, compliments or information; seeking intuition.

Fishing rod: Male sexuality; personal power, or feelings of impotence.

Getting a new fishing rod: In a man’s dream might mean feeling anxious about his ability to ‘hook’ a woman. For a woman it could mean a desire to ‘catch’ a new man. In general the rod suggests the means of pulling something out of the unknown of life or your mind. So it could suggest intuition or skill in acquiring creative ideas, or something that nourishes.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What are your trying to catch, a partner, inner wisdom, something to deal with hunger?

Have I been looking within myself lately for creative ideas or understanding?

Has anything been caught, and if so what do I feel about it?

What do the events and environment of the dream add to my understanding?

Did you catch anything, and if so what did it make you feel?

Where you trying to hook objects –  if what memories do they link with?

Try talking as to define your dreams meaning.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What are your trying to catch, a partner, inner wisdom, something to deal with hunger?

Have I been looking within myself lately for creative ideas or understanding?

Has anything been caught, and if so what do I feel about it?

What do the events and environment of the dream add to my understanding?

Did you catch anything, and if so what did it make you feel?

Where you trying to hook objects –  if what memories do they link with?

Try talking as to define your dreams meaning.

Anguish

To feel anguish in a dream seems to be that you are faced with something you cannot deal with emotionally or mentally. It can be the result of conflicting forces raging in you. Or it can be the surfacing of emotions from early trauma. See: emotions and mood.

Example: I had been in town all day with a woman I had fallen in love with. Then we had eaten out and it was wonderful to be together. We were waiting at traffic lights to change when she suddenly asked me to go into the hotel and she would be along shortly. So I went into our room and read a book, but my impatience to be with her got hold of me so I stood looking out of the window hoping to see her. But a terrible fear filled me, a fear that she had gone off with someone else, and as time passed I was in terrible anguish. I went out of the hotel and search for her without success. Then anger and anguish mixed into awful feelings. When I found her in the hotel shop nonchalantly browsing I felt like hell. But I recognised the feeling. It was the murderous rage I had felt when I was suddenly abandoned by my mother. So I felt I could not face her, but went for a walk till I calmed down. When I entered our room I was calm, without the raging volcano that had erupted in me. She asked me what had had happened and I explained as simply as I could, but was met with disbelief, and was accused of being angry with her. In fact I held no grudge against her, fully understanding my own inner torments. But she had come from such a loving family that she had no experience of such traumas, and had no way of understanding what had happened.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What was the cause of the anguish, and could you get beyond the surface feeling?

Was there an event which triggered it, or so are there any clues to it?

Is this an old feeling you have often?

It may help to understand if you read people’s experience of lifestream.

Also try using Processing Dreams.

Animal Situations

As a baby you were a small vulnerable animal, with all the natural instincts to feed, to survive, and to bond with your mother. This natural and spontaneous part of your nature is the foundation of what you have become now as an adult. Not only were you born with an enormous natural instinctive wisdom gained through millions of years of evolution, but your newborn self also carried protective responses such as fear, anger, and sexual longing. These are all built into your nature without any recourse to a self-aware personality. But our animal self has the inherited wisdom about survival and relationships, parenting and finding a mate. There is a lot to learn from it, and it is a wonderful resource. See Animal in your Brain.

But what many people find is that they are frightened of their dream animal, or have never learned to help it evolve into the human world. This means that many people have a great lack in themselves and in their dreams they have to meet and work with the animal in them. As a child we are often told not to do things that would allow to mature with our animal self intact. Dream images are our fears, angers, love and thoughts clothed in pictures and drama. If you are frightened of a dream animal it is your fear clothes in the image of an animal. See What do You bring to Your Dreams?

These inbuilt traits are represented or depicted in your dreams by various animals and the situations your dream process places them in. Without feelings of fear for instance, you would, especially during childhood, enter into situations that could be life threatening. These dream animals illustrate the many natural responses you have to events and people you confront. Because we see them in so many ways, such as the cunning of the fox, the strength and mystery of the elephant, the loving fierceness of a lioness with her cubs, and the almost unconditional love dogs give us, the animal in your dream can express a very wide spectrum of meaning.

Useful questions:

What feelings are connected with my dream animal – fear, anger, love, wisdom – and in what way is that entering my life?

Is this an animal I know in life – if so what are my feelings or experience of it?

What is the dream animal doing, and metaphorically, wha is that suggesting?

Perhaps try the suggestion here – Talking As

Animal with its young: Parental feelings; your basic childhood needs; your childhood experience of being parented.

Animal you love killed or died: This can often suggest great emotions being faced, Sometimes the shock is almost as if you have lost a child.

The difficulty might be trying to balance the mass of experiences of sharing you had the the loved animal. Suddenly you are faced by a complete contradiction, the living and the dead animal you are no faced with. It might be helpful to sit quietly an remember what feelings you had inside you as you hel or were near to each other, and then dwell in them.

Love can change the way dead pets experience their life after death, as this example illustrates.

Example: It involves my dad and his English bulldog, Chauncey. They were big buddies. Chauncey even went to work with Dad. Several years after Chauncey’s death, I dreamed of a female English bulldog who was very pregnant! A few weeks later, she appeared to me again, smiling proudly at two adorable puppies. One was brindle and the other was brindle and white. She showed me her house and street sign. The name of the street was Rosebud Lane. Then Chauncey appeared in the dream and told me he was returning and he would be the puppy that walked to me first! The next day I got the classifieds and started calling. It didn’t take long, the second call was located on Rosebud Lane. When I arrived, the mother dog looked just as she had in the dreams. She even acted like she knew me. I stood back and waited. Shortly, the little brindle and white puppy waddled to me. Dad cried when I handed the pup to him. Reincarnated bulldog…why not? By the way, Chauncey had a nickname…it was Rosebud!

Attacked by an animal: See: Wild animal(s) attacking.

Attacked sexually by an animal: This might be showing you feelings about sexual assault. If it does the animal side of the person who attacked you is probably indicated in some way. If you can meet it with your own anger it might have a healing effect.

Baby animal: A baby – sometimes connected with pregnancy; yourself when young; feelings or memories concerning your experience of babyhood; desire for babies; vulnerability; fundamental survival behaviours such as dependence, crying and bonding.

Domestic animal: Urges in yourself that you have learned to meet and direct with reasonable success. They still have to be cared for though, or they may react against what you ask of yourself. A horse for instance is broken in, or socialised, when it is young, as we are. But if we are keeping a horse, we must still make sure it has proper food, exercise and rest, as well as an expression for its herd instinct and sexual needs.

Eating the animal: Integrating your natural wisdom and energy; absorbing strength from sources other than your conscious personality; sensual pleasure and nutrition.

Fear of animal: This shows a fear of your natural impulses, or that you have been trained in childhood to repress your anger or curiosity. But some people have phobias about animals in waking life, perhaps through never relating to an animal when young, or from being attacked.

Herd of domesticated animals: The domestic animal depicts the urges in yourself and society, such as the sexual drive, aggression and self interest that have been directed socially for thousands of years, and is usually amenable to finding some level of social integration.

Herd of wild animals: The wild animal depicts your own urges or feelings that you are uncertain about controlling or directing. A herd of them therefore suggests you are meeting aspects of yourself you have not yet learned to direct or usefully integrate, and the herd might refer to your relationship with your own ‘herd’ or people around you.

Hiding from or trapped by an animal: Feeling controlled or threatened by your urges or emotions. See the wolf entry.

Killing an animal: This shows you killing urges or needs you have that are natural. Mostly this is injurious to your wholeness, but occasionally has to be done to deal with special life situations. The killing might also point to feelings of pain and conflict, as when we kill out something in us that is natural or even beautiful.

Licking: If an animal is licking you in some way it is an indication of love and even healing or a blessing. But if it is an aggressive type of animal it might suggest anger is being transformed into love, or strength being expressed as love or care.

Making love with an animal: This is usually about a meeting with your most primal and natural feelings, outside of social programming.

Neglect, mutilation or killing our ‘animal’: A common theme. In the example below, Lynda’s feelings show how she senses what she is doing to her inner nature, but she dismisses this by convincing herself such feelings are not ‘true’. But we have a responsibility to care for our animal drives, to see our sexual, nutritional and body needs are met, and the neglected animal shows us failing in this.

Example: ‘I am given an animal to look after, usually somebody’s pet while they are away on holiday. I then completely forget the animal, go away and when I return the animal is either dead or very dried up or has been got at by another animal and is in the throws of dying. When I wake from the dream I feel most dreadful and it is only when I am fully awake and realise it is not true do I feel better.’ Lynda E.

There are often dreams of mutilation or burned, starved, frozen, or beaten small amimals. They may not be things you have done to yourself but are things done to you by others, even parents. If you explore these dreams it gradually makes clear who perpeptrated the damage. You may need help in facing this.

Running away from or chased by an animal: If you are chased or running from an animal you are almost certainly feeling or exhibiting anxiety. If you take time to consider what an anxiety is, it is part of your own natural responses. Every animal feels anxious or afraid; it is its instinct to survive.

So the dream dog or animal is an image that clothes your feelings of anxiety. This may be difficult to grasp because the dream is an explanation of what you are facing in your self or life.  It is chasing you because it is part of you and you are running away from your own feelings.

To make this plain, the animal IS your feelings of anxiety. You see yourself running away from the animal because you are scared of your own feelings. Most of us don’t like feeling scared, so we run away from such feelings.

What can you do about this? Well you can imagine making friends with the animal, getting it some food, and direct its aggression or energy to be on your side. Or you can face your anxiety instead of running away from it. This, if you can do it, can radically change you.

Talking, white, shining, holy or wise animals: This shows important intuitive information; a meeting with the gathered wisdom we have unconsciously. This is one of the sources of religious inspiration, and many older cultures represent their origin of great learning or holiness as animals or animal headed beings. This is most likely because a great deal of innate information is held unconsciously. Our animal or instinctive self holds much of this, so communication with it can lead to enlightenment.

Taming or loved by a wild animal: Learning to relate to urges and energies in yourself that were previously unavailable to your will or needs. For instance some people face difficulties and their mind and body does not appear to support them. Instead emotions of anxiety rage within and they become ill. Other people have such a good relationship with their emotions they manage good health even when meeting stressful events.

Sacrificing animal: For long ages in human history animal sacrifice was practised. In a dream it might suggest the offering of ones sexuality or instinctive urges and needs to the influence of the life process within. It can also indicate, depending on the feelings in the dream, that you are killing a natural and innocent part of yourself. In a wider sense, life sacrifices itself to life. To exist, living forms devour each other. So the sacrifice is toward, and part of, the flow of life.

The traits, power or wisdom of the animal concerned; the instincts – for example yogis are often depicted sitting on an animal skin. This means they have mastered their instincts and gained the wisdom and power latent in them.

 Skinned animal: The maltreatment of your supportive instincts and the life processes that give life to your body and supports your personality. Feeling vulnerable at the basic levels of your being, and having no protection against the things touching or impinging on your life.

Wild animal: Urges and spontaneous feelings that may not respond in the way you, or your social training, may wish. Wild animals in dreams are not something ultimately different to your personality. They are an expression of energies and needs that you have not previously related to in a co-operative or mutually helpful way.

Wild animal(s) attacking: The wild animal represents your unrepressed instinctive reactions such as sex and anger. In the attacking mode however it shows unleashed aggression. In some dreams being attacked depicts what we feel in relationship with other people. The attack, the criticism and malign emotions directed at us by others are frequently shown as an animal attacking or biting us. Sometimes we may be aware of this, but often remarks are made which we miss, yet are sensed as an attack by our unconscious.

Wounded animal: A hurt that has caused instinctive reaction, such as unreasoning reactive anger or fawning submission.

Animals – dealing with dream animals To understand your dream animals, it is helpful to imagine that you are the keeper of a prehistoric type of human animal. As such you would need to be aware what the correct diet is for this big creature; what type of dwelling it needs; what are its sexual and emotional needs; what frightens it or causes it stress; what amount of exercise keeps it healthy, what its stages of growth are and how it can best develop through those stages; and what satisfies it in relationships with others of its kind? Your animal dreams are showing you exactly those issues. They are giving you insight into how to care for the instinctive, the spontaneous and natural in you.

Therefore ask yourself the following questions about your animal dreams, and write down any responses. If the answer is no to a question, move on the next one:

Depending upon how the animal in your dream is presented, and what it is doing, dream animals represent your fundamental drives such as the fear reaction, anger, need for food, urge to breathe, sex or procreative drive, parental urges, drive for recognition or dominance in groups; survival drive; love of offspring; spontaneity; home building. They depict these drives perhaps stripped of their social forms of expression.

As such the animal can portray your relationship with the fundamental life processes in you. Dreams depict these processes as intelligent and responsive, not just as chemical actions and reactions as modern medicine so often does. Therefore your conscious attitudes influence these fundamental living processes in you – processes that maintain health, digest, beat your heart, rebuild damage and fight infection. Negative feelings or attitudes can cause these ‘animals’ is you to despair or lose motivation, and thus lead to depression or illness. Remember that in looking at the animal in your dreams you are yourself an animal. You as a person are a tiny spark of consciousness, a little bit of self awareness riding an incredibly ancient animal you call your body. Remember that your body has formed from cells and genetic information that has gradually developed over millions of years. It holds that information in it unconsciously. The animal in your dreams depicts this ancient wisdom and how you relate to it. It shows you how you are dealing with the urges in you that are natural, but might need to be helped into modern life or transformed in some way, not killed out, maimed or tortured. See: The Rock Beast.

Animals are one of the most frequent of symbols that appear in dreams. Because we see them in so many ways, such as the cunning of the fox, the strength and mystery of the elephant, the loving fierceness of a lioness with her cubs, and the almost unconditional love dogs give us, the animal in our dream can express a very wide spectrum of meaning.

As we project these characteristics onto animals, we may dream of an animal to represent the feelings we have about a person. An attacking dog for instance may be used to depict how we see someone who is being aggressive toward us.

Thus dream animals are complex symbols, and they portray many shades of meaning. Some animal dreams for instance display personal need for affection, desire to be touched, or the need to care for another creature and thus feel needed. Sometimes they depict pregnancy and parental caring. Because of these huge variations, the long commentary at the end of the individual description of animals has been added to help awareness in looking at such dreams. Each animal is also given an entry, as the character of the various animals suggests different things to us. Pets, for instance, have given to each of us very different experiences. We therefore have personal associations and feeling responses to pets we might dream about. See excellent example of this in the example under ferret. See: ape; birds; creatures; pet; reptiles and snakes; the unconscious.

Animals

Animal Situations – Click on that for things like baby animal and fear of animal. But please search for single animals by name – for instance Bear, Lion, Cat, Tiger, Horse and Dog.

When we were growing in our mother’s womb, we passed through the whole spectrum of evolution. You grew from a tiny seed in your mother’s womb, and as it did so it took you through the whole process of evolution. You started as a single cell at he beginning of life on this earth. As such you are eternal for those cells never die, but constantly produce copies of themselves, but with each new copy they carry what was learnt or experienced from the past. We call that evolution, so they evolved through the vegetative phase as cell division. Then they evolved into a creature with gills and then the reptilian phase and up to the mammalian. Then when you emerged as a human baby, you entered the time when you learned the amazing computer like program called language, up until then you were a little animal. See animal children

In fact you ride an ancient beast. The ancient beast is your body which evolved in a continuous line from the single celled creature, and your conscious self is the modern and recent rider of it. Some ‘riders’ do not understand their animal needs – and the fact that we have several levels of brain that are independent of each other proves this. Still active in us are our Reptile Brain, our mammalian Brain, and our Human Brain, and the reptile and mammalian brains are still very active and constitute a large part of our human unconscious. Without understanding our inner animals we are only half functioning. See Brain Levels and Dreams

In older societies this was recognised and was part of children’s education/initiation. East Coast Africans saw the uncircumcised as animals; meaning that they had not integrated and grown beyond their animal and instinctive self. They had not made conscious the human or the animal aspect of an uncircumcised boy’s life. If that were not done the animal or instinctive nature could dominate the person. This is evident in our present world where enormous killing of another race or people of another belief system is seen. Ox Herding The ancient heritage that dreams portray as our animal is not simply a psychological belief. It is built into our body and is very evident in the fact that we have three interwoven brains. 

The second part of your brain is called the Limbic System. This is wrapped around the R complex, and is something we share with other mammals such as cats, dogs and horses. It developed about 60 million years ago and deals with your emotions, feelings responses to people and events, the subtler inner life you feel in love and sex, and it provides a deep wisdom about social and individual relationships.

Dreams often use mammals or apes to portray the influence in your life of this part of your unconscious drives and intuitions. The third part of your brain is the Cortex. This is unique to humans and takes up five sixths of the brain mass. It deals with all the things that are distinctly human, such as logical thought, writing, analysis, self awareness and conscious movements.

HERE WE CAN SEE THE THREE BRAINS

The Limbic is the Mammalian Brain and the Neo-Cortex is the Human Brain.

It also is a clear example of our evolutionary past and our heritage from mammals and reptiles. As can be seen the limbic developed out of and enclosed the reptilian, and the neo-cortex superseded the limbic.

An American advertising company, describing these three brains in its instructions to planning advertising campaigns says, “Our Reptilian Brain is more powerful than the Limbic (emotional) Brain, which in turn is more powerful that the Cortex (thinking) Brain.

It is best to take all three brains into account when planning a marketing/branding campaign.” Connecting this with the animals we dream about, waking animal phobias, unless rooted in an actual encounter with an animal – for instance being bitten by a dog – may still represent our personal struggle with and fear of our own instinctive reactions and feelings. It is also probably true that all of us, left-handed or not, experience deeply moving feeling reactions such as anxiety in response to many events of our everyday life. But as findings suggest, some people are physiologically, and thus also psychologically, better equipped to deal with such high levels of impulse than others.

This can be thought of as a stronger or more resistant threshold for impulses such as fear or aggression to pass through before they impact upon the conscious personality. Therefore, in some people, such as women in general, and the left-handed in particular, their ‘animal’ is a much more insistent beast in their dream life. See Animal in your Brain.

Example: A huge black panther chased me. I fell and it clawed my back. It was about to chew my back to bite me. I didn’t know whether to relax or struggle. After being floored by the Panther I managed to get up. I later imagined being the panther. I allowed the panther to eat me, and I thus became the panther. Then I, as the panther, noticed a tiger. Feeling enormous temper – anger – hate I leapt upon the tiger to claw and devour it. I really felt strong temper. It kept really appearing to get smaller and smaller. Eventually I saw it as just a toy cuddly tiger. Then its head came off as a pantomime horse does, and I was amazed to see that my cousin Sidney was inside it, who I felt had mercilessly teased me as a child. The panther was my own feelings of anger.

Example: A 35-year-old man told me that, until he became interested in the metaphysical, he dreamed persistently that he was being eaten by a lion. Even as a child he had this dream. The lion represented his bad temper. He had never tried to control it until he began to work on himself, at which time his dreams of lions ceased.

Example: I wondered what the arrows and javelins could be, and was it I throwing them, firing them at this beautiful beast? Gradually it clarified that we continually injure this wonderful natural process in us. Being aware is a special state that acts in all manner of ways for this great ancient beat that is our body or process that is behind our existence. It is the process of life which is there with us as we go through our conception. As that we are simply a mass of cells, which then slowly evolves into an aquatic creature with gills, and slowly on to form a body that can breath air. So we are very much an animal who has only recently become self aware.

Consciousness is its eyes and ears, its fingers and mouth, its means of experience, and its way of learning. And whatever we feed back to that fundamental part of us is deeply felt. Perhaps this is not a very accurate description, but it is like a loving and willing dog that out of its instinctive being tries to do all that we ask of it, tries to grow, tries to learn. But it is so sensitive, so when we are angry with it, or frustrated, or direct criticism at it, it cowers, it feels failure, its exuberance diminishes. So also with this great wonderful beast within, this mysterious process of life that is at our core. It withdraws. But we can also call it out into further expression, enabling it to extend beyond its previous capabilities, by loving it, by acknowledging its wonder, by calling it forth. That is a wonderful way to lead our inner being forward, by loving it and working with it toward being more that we were. But what many people find is that they are frightened of their dream animal, or have never learned to help it evolve into the human world. This means that many people have a great lack in themselves and in their dreams they have to meet and work with the animal in them. As a child we are often told not to do things that would allow us to mature with our animal self intact.

These inbuilt traits are represented or depicted in your dreams by various animals and the situations your dream process places them in. Without feelings of fear for instance, you would, especially during childhood, enter into situations that could be life threatening. These dream animals illustrate the many natural responses you have to events and people you confront.

Because we see them in so many ways, such as the cunning of the fox, the strength and mystery of the elephant, the loving fierceness of a lioness with her cubs, and the almost unconditional love dogs give us, the animal in your dream can express a very wide spectrum of meaning.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What feelings are connected with my dream animal – fear, anger, love, wisdom – and in what way is that entering my life?

Is this an animal I know in life – if so what are my feelings or experience of it?

What is the dream animal doing, and metaphorically, what is that suggesting? Perhaps try the method of talking as.

Example: Ethnologist Ivar Lissner theorized that cave paintings of beings combining human and animal features were not physical representations of mythical hybrids, but were instead attempts to depict shamans in the process of acquiring the mental and spiritual attributes of various beasts or poweranimals. Religious historian Mircea Eliade has observed that beliefs regarding animal identity and transformation into animals are widespread. The iconography of the Vinca culture of Neolithic Europe in particular is noted for its frequent depiction of an owl-beaked “bird goddess”.

Depending upon how the animal in your dream is presented, and what it is doing, dream animals represent your fundamental drives such as the fear reaction, anger, need for food, urge to breathe, sex or procreative drive, parental urges, drive for recognition or dominance in groups; survival drive; love of offspring; spontaneity; home building.

They depict these drives perhaps stripped of their social forms of expression. As such the animal can portray your relationship with the fundamental life processes in you. Dreams depict these processes as intelligent and responsive, not just as chemical actions and reactions as modern medicine so often does. Therefore your conscious attitudes influence these fundamental living processes in you – processes that maintain health, digestion, beats your heart, rebuild damage tissues and fight infection. Negative feelings or attitudes can cause these ‘animals’ is you to despair or lose motivation, and thus lead to you experiencing depression or illness.

Remember that in looking at the animal in your dreams you are yourself an animal, a living mammal. You as a person are a tiny spark of consciousness, a little bit of self awareness riding an incredibly ancient animal you call your body. Remember that your body has formed from cells and genetic information that has gradually developed over millions of years. It holds that information in it unconsciously. The animal in your dreams depicts this ancient wisdom and how you relate to it. It shows you how you are dealing with the urges in you that are natural, but might need to be helped into modern life or transformed in some way, not killed out, maimed or tortured. See: The Rock Beast.

Animals are one of the most frequent of symbols that appear in dreams. Because we see them in so many ways, such as the cunning of the fox, the strength and mystery of the elephant, the loving fierceness of a lioness with her cubs, and the almost unconditional love dogs give us, the animal in our dream can express a very wide spectrum of meaning. As we project these characteristics onto animals, we may dream of an animal to represent the feelings we have about a person. An attacking dog for instance may be used to depict how we see someone who is being aggressive toward us.

Thus dream animals are complex symbols, and they portray many shades of meaning. Some animal dreams for instance display personal need for affection, desire to be touched, or the need to care for another creature and thus feel needed. Sometimes they depict pregnancy and parental caring. Because of these huge variations, the long commentary at the end of the individual description of animals has been added to help awareness in looking at such dreams. Each animal is also given an entry, as the character of the various animals suggests different things to us. Pets, for instance, have given to each of us very different experiences. We therefore have personal associations and feeling responses to pets we might dream about. See excellent example of this in the example under ferret. See: ape below; birds; creatures; pets; reptiles and snakes; the unconscious and  A Childs amazing connection to wild animals – Unbelievable Friendship! People and Wild Animals

Animals – Being Neglected or Killed

Such neglect usually shows how we misunderstand our own basic needs. After all we are an animal, with all the needs for care, sexual expression, affection, shelter and food. Considering how much society makes such needs and meeting them terrible difficult, it is no wonder we dream of neglecting or torturing our animal. Remember that our body is an vary ancient thing, and in its growth went through all the stages of life from a tiny cell, an amphibious creature, toward humanness. So in meeting such dreams we need to treat our animal with care and love. This can be done by visualising the animal and creating a different feeling and situation in your imagination. This will gradually change the dreams or neglect.

In the example below, Lynda’s feelings show how she senses what she is doing to her inner nature, but she dismisses this by convincing herself such feelings are not ‘true’. But we have a responsibility to care for our animal drives, to see our sexual, nutritional and body needs are met, and the neglected animal shows us failing in this.

 Example: ‘I am given an animal to look after, usually somebody’s pet while they are away on holiday. I then completely forget the animal, go away and when I return the animal is either dead or very dried up or has been got at by another animal and is in the throws of dying. When I wake from the dream I feel most dreadful and it is only when I am fully awake and realise it is not true do I feel better.’ Lynda E.

Example: “I am your child and your mother. They call me the ‘connecting animal’ because I connect people, animals, and even stone’s with one another if I enter them. I am your fate or the ‘objective I.’ When I appear, I redeem you from the meaningless hazards of life. The fire burning inside me burns in the whole of nature. If a person loses it, they become egocentric, lonely, disoriented, and weak.”

Example: As I walked the meadow my dog was running free. I felt I must call him to heal, as there were grazing animals about. I called him and saw him coming, almost wraith like, or like a spirit form, shadowy and powerful looking. He was running behind a wonderful looking beast – a mixture between a sheep a gazelle and a deer. The remarkable thing about it was its colouring. There were bright blues on its hindquarters, and radiant almost transparent colours elsewhere, perhaps on its head. I shouted to stop my dog frightening the creature. The creature ran towards me and jumped into my arms, very fearful, but relaxing and feeling safe as I held it. I could sense its emotions of terror. I seemed to feel what it was feeling inside. It was a creature without any means of defence except to run. So, it was frightened for its life. This sense of its inner condition was impressive as I knew what it was like to be that creature when hunted. I also could feel how it could feel safe in my arms because somehow it was like handing over its defence to a sort of mother, as a baby might.

Often the hurt or terrified dream animal is actually your own feelings as a baby or child. The man in the above dream said, “I seemed to feel what it was feeling inside.” This is a sign that he was feeling his own animal/child feelings. So it would be good to see if you can connect with those feeling in your dream yourself – the feeling of being abandoned, forgotten, in pain, being exposed to abuse, or any of the intense emotions and sensations a child experiences. See Baby and Child – Meeting Them –  Programmed – Child – helping and healing

Ankle Ankles

This might relate to the ankle or to the Achilles tendon, both of which are vulnerable areas. In some dreams this is where one is bitten by a creature or hit, suggesting being got at in a vulnerable area. But it is also a part of the body near to the ground and so open to either being out of sight, bitten or injured.

Having a damaged ankle would not be incredibly disabling, and would certainly make it more difficult to get around, and this is probably the meaning in a dream of injury.

Looking through all the mentions of ankle in the dreams I have collected, the mentions of vulnerability is tops, but there are many others. People often mention stepping into ankle deep water or mud, so perhaps a measurement of difficulty. Or they have their ankle taped or roped to imprison them. Perhaps they overcome the vulnerable ankle problem and so show their problem solving ability; or else they wear jewellery around their ankle like a slave girl.

Useful Questions and Hints:

If this is disabling in the dream, what does it suggest about my daily life?

Is this just a little thing saying that there is an influence that has entered my life, but it is not serious?

In what way am I vulnerable, and what is effecting that vulnerability?

What does it mean to me to have jewellery around an ankle?

What did I feel when I stepped out into water or mud?

Try using Processing Dreams.

Another

The word ‘another’ is used often in dream descriptions and in context with so many things it is difficult to give a useful definition. Here are just a few taken from dreams: another part of my nature – I landed another blow – another kind of beauty – another box of books – her words fell over one another trying to mean something – walked from one world into another – about reincarnation or another life – I pick another spot and my friend joins me – another Oriental girl tries to edge her way in – and another was cuddling and breast-feeding a baby.

I included this word because so many people have searched for it in vain, so would suggest looking up context and seeing what else it links with. For instance in the cuddling and breast feeding the word another obviously points to a group situation, and the words cuddling and breast feeding. If it is pointing to another situation or another person ask yourself what that indicates.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Consider what the word ‘another’ is indicating.

What is the drama or theme of the dream indicating – see drama plot and theme

Use Processing Dreams to define what the dream is about.

Antique

Anything old or ancient suggests it has existed for a long time, so it carries an enormous amount of experience, an enormous imprint of the past. This often links with wisdom or treasures of realisation, perhaps revealed by intuition.

But the dreamt of ancient or old thing may be pointing to a period of your life relating to the period the ‘old’ thing or person represents. It may also depict an attitude or way of life you have seen portrayed in historical drama. It can point to your past and the different lives you have lived – baby, youth, lover, parent, provider, or what is established and well worn, such as tradition and wisdom of folklore.

An old or antique building or place can sometimes relate to the incredible age of your mind. There is in each of us an intuition or sense that shows us or reveals to us if we care to be aware, that our mind is not simply new with our birth. Its contents, through language, inherited customs, and genetic material, are incredibly old. Exploring such dreams of antiquity can often bring to awareness this ancient heritage.

Old building: Past way of life; former life with family or another person.

Old people: Wisdom; mother or father; past experience; traditions; old age or feelings about ageing; death.

Old things or furniture: Past or outworn ways of life or activities. See: old house example under age.

Example: ‘I am standing in a book shop. It is a long established business. As I look at the books I find two which are about the life of Christ. They are leather bound and hand written – quite ancient. Both seem to me to be about the author’s own inner life. I believe one is written from a religious viewpoint and the other from a more occult one. I am not attracted to either.’ Bill O.

Bill is looking back on past attitudes, one religious, one occult, which had been big parts of his life.

ancient Usually suggests contact with parts of our being older than the development of the conscious self – such as cellular wisdom; life processes; accepted traditions or ways of life; wisdom of the unconscious.

antique Elements of our past experience which might be worth keeping; wisdom of unconscious.

See: age; ancient.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Are there any lessons from my past hinted at here?

What is the old thing or person and what ties or links do I have or had with it?

If it is a person it would be helpful to use Talking As to clarify what it is about.

In any case using Processing Dreams can be of great help.

Antlers

Because they are the growth and protective tools of some male herbivores, they may represent conflict between males or protection of the female. The male often links with bold and powerful masculinity and sexuality in a natural and potent form. They can also suggest supernatural power when worn by shaman’s or in initiatory rituals. Also, because they are the sign of a male seeking a mate they might be linked with power over nature and fertility.n also be seen as a wall trophy of the hunt for a woman – or just as a sign of male prowess. They are also a sharp and defensive weapon, either against other males or to herd females.

The following dream by a woman is obviously about her feelings about mating.

Example: The three of us were on our way to a lively night out and I suggested a short cut through Richmond Park. Suddenly this old man stepped out and advised us not to do so as stags were rutting. I thanked him and replied they would be too busy to care about us. As we walked through, trying to ignore the fact the stags seemed to be stuck together, we felt relieved. Suddenly an enormously big stag with tremendous horns and a leering and vicious expression came swaying toward us after breaking free of a female deer. Jasmine C.”

“In the Trois Freres cave in France, a man wrapped in an animal hide is playing a primitive flute as if he meant to put a spell on the animals. In the same cave, there is a dancing human being, with antlers, a horse’s head, and bear’s paws. This figure, dominating a medley of several hundred animals, is unquestionably ‘The Lord of the Animals.’

The further back we go in time, or the more primitive and closer to nature the society is, the more literally such titles must be taken. A primitive chief is not only disguised as the animal; when he appears at initiation rites in – full animal disguise – he feels himself as the animal. Still more, he is an animal spirit. At such moments he incorporates or represents the ancestor of the tribe and the clan, and therefore the primal god himself. He represents, and is, the “totem” animal. Thus, we probably should not go far wrong in seeing in the figure of the dancing animal-man in the Trois Freres cave a kind of chief who has been transformed by his disguise into an animal demon”. Quoted from Man and His Symbols by Jung. See Mammal Brain; ShapeShifter.

The following dream is about a woman seeking the spirit of manhood to carry her off.

You helped me a bit with my dream. In my dream I was in a forest, and in front of me was a herd of deer. They all ran away except for a single stag. Suddenly I was beside it, and in my head, I asked if he wanted me to ride him. I saw his eyes and then climbed on his back. As soon as I grabbed on to his antlers, he ran off with me.

The next dream is an encounter with the energy we have within us that is our inner animal. But it is communicating you must not go this way until your personality dies. Death is a part of initiation because the usual human person cannot open to the enormous world of the unconscious because they are frightened of it, and so have to let themselves completely enter their inner world to become a different person.

I dreamed that I was driving my car on the highway and I saw a huge moose on the road. So, I stopped, hoping the moose would move. Then all of a sudden, the moose charged at me (at this moment I thought: I’m going to die), then the moose charged right through my windshield with its antlers. I went flying back with glass exploding everywhere, and then I woke up.

The next dream is an example of this death and its transformation.

There was another big hill, but this one was covered with vines, grass, and tree bark maybe half a foot deep. I was watching a bunch of elk with weird antlers eating when I noticed a big ball of fog roll in. It was at the bottom of the hill, which was connected to the ocean. The fog turned into what looked like dandelion seeds and they multiplied by the thousands until it was a solid, floating mass that not even air could fit between. It started spreading toward me, so I tried to run up the hill. I couldn’t, though, because of all the forest debris in the way…it was like quicksand. Then some seeds got into my lungs, populated, and suffocated me. Then I died and somehow transformed into an elk and started eating grass.

The following is an attempted interpretation.

The ocean is that from which our life has sprung, and so it is the source of the enormous urge to promulgate. I see the dream as a way of illustrating your desire to attain and to meet with the extraordinary urge to promulgate, to populate. But the urge is not just to procreate with a child but to express your essence and make it real in the world. When you realised the cloud was too much for you to deal with you tried to climb above it, but the bark was in the way. I see the debris as all the thinking and words you have collected and are bogged down by. Like words they are lifeless protective things that fall away. You tried to grow or rise by thinking or trying too hard.

But then you died – you no longer expressed your ego -because the seeds suffocated you. The path you are trying to walk is up the hill toward a greater awareness. But death is a necessary part of that. Your personality that has been raised on words and thinking has to die to make way for growth. This type of death is like the spider that sheds its skin because it has grown too tight. So, death is like recognition that we have grown as far as we can in our present mind state. That mind state has to die to give birth to another one.

And then you meet and become your totem animal. This is very much a Native American dream theme, and according to tradition it means Moose represents self-esteem and is also about the magick of life and death. Late autumn and early winter is moose’s cycle of power.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What are the qualities of the deer in your dream?

Does it link in any way with a feeling of entering the magical realm of nature or the unknown?

Are you feeling about it as you would with a female?

If a stag, are there symbols linking it with sexuality, such as its horns or its attraction to you?

If you use Talking As it may help you discover the natural part of you.

Ants

Like many insects, the ants might depict small irritations or criticisms things that have got into you in some way. Ants have been used in dreams to suggest sperm also. Also when we look at an ants nest we see massive work going on, so it can reflect our work.

In some dreams there is a play on the idea of the ant representing the  small and insignificant and the giant who apparently rules the world. It might also show how the small and insignificant can bring great changes or catch the attention of the dreamer – the giant.

Our life does not depend upon any wrinkle cream, or “we deserve it” shampoo. Our life depends upon the tiny creatures of this world and their health. It depends upon the tiny bacteria, the tiny lichens, the small lives in the billions and trillions upon which the edifice of our life is built. And they in turn depend upon sex – upon that open receptiveness that the earth has with the sun. The big needs the small.

“I dreamed I saw an army of ants. There were millions and millions of them marching in columns. And they were carrying a noodle. Then they came to a short brick wall, but instead of going over the wall as I expected, they went through it. I cried “EEK! ANTS!” and grabbed a can of insecticide and sprayed them. But the spray turned out to be a foam and foamed up all over them. It killed them just the same.

Then the scene changed and I was looking into a pool of water. There was a kitten suspended halfway between the top and the bottom of the pool and I had a strong feeling that it was neither dead or alive. Strangely enough, I felt sorry for having killed all the ants and immediately the kitten rose to the surface and cried. And its fur was orange!

This was followed by another dream: “I met a friend. She asked me how I had “got my baby”. I told her it was easy, I got it out of a vending machine. Then I told her, “I’ll show you” and I put a quarter in the machine. But instead of a baby coming out, a kitten appeared!”

This dream was something of a puzzle at first. Fortunately, the Ant Dream arrived soon afterward and it became immediately clear that its main purpose was to set a precise meaning on the symbol of the kitten, which also figures prominently in the Ant Dream.

In the Vending Machine dream, the meaning of “kitten” (for this dreamer, in this dream) is well established when the dreamer goes through the motions of expecting a baby to appear from the vending machine and is instead presented with a kitten. In other words, Kitten = Baby.

The ants are symbolic of sperm cells and the wall represents the egg. The noodle is a phallic symbol, representing the male gender. To continue with this line of thought, the insecticide is seen to represent commonly used foam contraceptives. The pool of water, with kitten, is symbolic of the womb, filled with amniotic fluid and containing an infant. Since Ruth felt that this kitten, or infant, was neither dead or alive, this is seen as an infant not yet born. Perhaps not yet conceived. When Ruth felt sorrow for having killed the ants, or in other words regretted using a contraceptive, the kitten comes to life and cries. Symbolic of the cry of an infant being born, of the moment of birth. This kitten had orange fur, the same color as her husband’s hair. This identifies the infant-to-be as her and her husband’s unborn child. My feeling on this, and it is quite strong, is that “The Ant Dream” is a direct communication from the spirit of the unborn child depicted in the dream to the person who could become his mother. Quoted from Sundance Magazine, written by Aurelius,

Useful Questions and Hints: 

What part do the ant or ants play in my dream, and what does that suggest?

Is there any suggestion of size in the dream?

Try being the person or thing as it may well open doors within you.

Anus

The area of our nervous system around the anus and genitals is highly sensitive in babyhood. So it may link with the self expression, the pleasure, and the feelings of deep connection the baby feels in this area. As it also links with the huge experience of learning self control, and how ones parents dealt with you going to the toilet, so it can also connect with holding on or letting go; control or relaxation; pleasure or guilt. This in turn could involve feelings of success or failure. Therefore it associates with your WILL. feeling punished and treated like a child, to feelings or arousal and sexual pleasure.

The anus also deals with what we get rid of that our body does not use. So it can link with the experiences or the attitudes that we want to or need to get rid of. These are the waste products of our life. But our dreams often see what we pass out of our body as ‘waste’ is a wonderful enriched gift we are giving the earth.

Example: The therapist encouraged him in the fantasy, and soon he was joyously lost in the slime—and the mussels had turned to excrement. No longer repelled, he abandoned himself to a search for a treasure he felt must lie within the darkness. When he came up he held in his hand a pink pearl that glowed like the clouds of dawn. Then he remembered how he and his brother had fought over a pink pearl which was to be given to their mother. The pearl stood for her. Those children, wallowing in the mud beside the willows in the hot summer sun, had been performing an ancient and sacred rite, returning to the source of life and their beginnings under the sun.

These things help to explain the great importance of the anus to the psyche, and why the sexual fantasies of most children center on the anus rather than the vagina or the penis. Later, with more specific knowledge of their origins, children replace the image with the vagina and penis, and a new series of sexual theories appears. Most patients deal with their birth fantasies at this level, and there is much dealing to be done before the simple animal facts can be accepted. Quoted from LSD Psychotherapy by W V Caldwell

If relaxed: Easy self expression.

If tense: Not letting go of feelings you might be judging as ‘shitty’; feelings to do with being hurt or holding back. The holding back might link with sexual pleasure or performance.

If playing with or being entered by penis or finger: Introverted sexuality; self pleasure; narcissism. Perhaps self examination.

Excrement: The negative emotions and ideas we might not want to let go of; sometimes money; worry over something judged unclean; a cleansing or need for cleansing of inner feelings, such as guilt, inhibitions, resentments, hate, worry, or fear.

Holding or letting go: How we give of ourselves; whether we can ‘let go’; our generosity or lack of it.

Idioms: Talking out of arse; pain in the arse; an arsehole; head up the arse; disappears up; all tits and arsehole – no ability to reason. See: excrement.

Useful questions are:

Does this in any way relate to childhood feelings, and if so what are they?

Is there any connection with sexual pleasure in the dream?

Is anything emerging from the anus, and if so what does it suggest I am discharging?

Use Acting on your dream

Anxiety

One of the most frequent dream themes is that of anxiety in some form. This may not be because most dreams are about things we fear, but simply because we remember those more than bland dreams. In our dreams, all that can possibly disturb us are our memories, disturbing images and our own emotions. Our dream may be about a snake, or car accident – frightening things that in the dream appear to be exterior to us.

Freud (1) in the early years of the last century pioneered explorations into man’s unconscious life and drew the attention of an organically minded profession to the role of inner unconscious conflicts in deter­mining the sources of neurotic anxiety.

On the physiological side, Cannon (2) brought the holistic view of the organism into the situation and recognised that “anxiety may be produced by a variety of events, which have one common element. There is always a discrepancy between the individual’s capacities and the demands made on him which make self-realization impossible.” Cannon did outstanding work in the field of homeostasis and more recently other writers have enlarged our concepts although clearly there is marked discrepancy between their basic philosophies except for the recognition of the supreme importance of emotional factors in human adjustment.

But whenever we dream its images are not like real life, because a dream is nothing like outer life where things could hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen, so that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear; so, all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind. In the early days of moving pictures, a film was shown of a train coming fast toward them; the viewers all fled in terror, fearing the train would crush them. That is exactly the same response if you are terrified of any thing you dream of. See Masters of Nightmares

Even so, it is our emotions about the image of the snake or situation that disturbs us, and these can be changed. The image is only a mask on the surface of our emotions to enable recognition and enhancement of the raw feelings. If we can recognise what an enormous power our imagination has on our emotions and body, this can start the process of lessening anxiety. Many anxieties can be met by imagining changing the dream, confronting the fear, challenging what oppresses us.

Some of the clearest examples of what stress or the causes of anxiety are, however, can be seen in looking at the body in stress situations. For instance if we fall into or swim in icy cold water, this places the body in stress. What this means in plain language is that because the body needs to maintain it’s temperature at about 98.4 F, being exposed to cold for too long could be fatal. The condition between easy maintenance of body temperature and death through exposure to low temperature is stress.

Therefore, some causes of physical stress could be exposure to extreme heat; taking poison into the system; lack of oxygen; high levels of carbon monoxide (car exhaust fumes) etc, in the air we breath; lack of food; lack of vital nutrients such as iron, protein, etc; insufficient sleep; and so on can lead to enormous anxiety.

When we fall into cold water our body attempts to deal with the stress through its self-regulating or homeostatic processes. The glandular system will probably secrete adrenalin into the blood stream, causing the heart to speed up. But many other activities try to meet the emergency, even to such small things as the liver releasing more vitamin A to deal with the shock to the immune system. See Fear – Self-regulation

Example: It was only after my return to live in a block of flats in London that I realized how infrequently one hears a baby crying in India, how frequently in Britain.  I have already suggested that the early weaning of our babies may be responsible for the slight bias towards pessimism which colours our outlook. Among the Hindus whom I studied, the opposite bias prevailed; they seemed to live in constant expectation of a stroke of good fortune. Each new acquaintance was scanned hopefully as if he might be the agent of their material and spiritual salvation; and in spite of many disappointments, these hopes would rise again.

Pessimism is closely allied to anxiety and clinically these two character traits merge into one another. It is not suggested that basic anxiety and its multiple psychosomatic manifestations are the direct sequence of our breast feeding habits but that cultural patterns in infant care contribute towards the tension and anxiety which is frequently accentuated by their experiences and by parental attitudes.”

Melanie Klein (8) has also clarified our outlook by stressing the importance of identification with the parents which is carried into adult life. At every stage the ability to identify makes possible the happiness of being able to admire the character or achievements of others. The ability to admire another person’s achievements is one of the factors making successful team work possible. Klein’s work with children has shown that even from babyhood onwards the mother, and soon other people in the child’s surroundings, are taken into the self, and this is the basis of a variety of identifications, favourable and unfavourable.

An Aspect of Anxiety

 Any attempt to stress the nature of anxiety must incorporate the contention that anxiety is a natural phenomenon which the individual experiences when values essential to his existence, his sense of being and his identity are threatened. It is to be distinguished from fear in which the threat is peripheral, the intactness of the sense of being is not being threatened, the danger is objective and the individual can evaluate it and can act either in terms of flight or fight in coping with it.

Useful questions:

Can I recognise that the frightening dream is simply an expression of my emotions and has no power to harm?

What emotions am I frightened of, and do I want to continue to run from them?

What I run from controls me, can I therefore imagine turning around and facing the scary images?

See Secrets of Power Dreaming – Avoid Being Victims – Facing Fear – The Slow Breath

Apartment Flat

Suggests your basic needs such as shelter, warmth, nourishment – but usually in the sense of what you have created as your basic way of life; the values, standards, goals you have accepted as normal, or are ‘at home’ with. Also your private and personal place of comfort and ease – unless there is stress associated with it.

This will have a slightly different significance if this is a dream flat, and is one you have lived in in the dream. Therefore the questions need to be asked as to whether you lived/live alone in the dream apartment or the real apartment? Did you share the apartment with others? What was living alone or sharing like? These form the associated feelings connected with the dream apartment. See: Associations Working With; house.

Living alone: This suggests you have achieve a level of personal independence. It is a first level, but shows you have mastered the ability to earn your own way, to function as an individual in society.

Living together with another: Shows you moving toward independence but need the support of others to manage it. It might also mean you are learning the lessons of sharing and adult behaviour.

Block of Flats: Communal living but with personal space. An atmosphere created by a group, as in second example. Meeting with and dealing with or failing to deal with your relationship with others.

Example: I am in a block of flats. Lee from college has run off owing me money. Old flats I am on 4th floor; there are a few kids and dogs playing on. The roof is the same level.  I realise that I can live in any of the block as they are all empty. I tell myself that I will not take any more shit from no one as I return to 3rd floor flat. As I enter I hear movement from behind door. I shit myself. I wake up and think of the c*** who robbed my cottage. I felt I had no power.

Example: I was walking near big, old, blocks of flats. I noticed one was called Matins, and thought they were for Roman Catholics. They were very worn, almost slums. I then noticed that it was all black people in these blocks. Really jet black. One called out from a balcony asking what I wanted. There was a slightly hostile feeling as they all looked at me to see what I would do or say. I was then partly my father, and said I had come for a blow, (i.e. on the saxophone or clarinet). Everybody was now friendly and crowded around. They asked me if I had my brushes with me – that is, drum brushes. I said no, and then started playing the clarinet. It was completely spontaneous, moved by the spirit, and was wonderful music.

Example: I went up to a place – either a room or cliff top – where two old women lived. They were supposed to be insane, and I was a little apprehensive, but felt I could cope if things went wrong. In the place were too large packing case things like rabbit hutches – the women were in these. I just stood about, and felt I was company for the women. I noticed a hole in the sacking that covered one box, and saw an eye looking at me through the hole. Then both the women were out, and were completely naked. One of them came up to me and looked at me. She was short, old, with a funny little face, but brown live skin, not repulsive. She said something to me, which may have been a request to be attached. I said, “What, you want to be attached here?” And put my hand on her vagina. Then she came close to me and I felt like having intercourse with her, but refrained. It seemed as if her vagina was a black void. I then went away. Later, I came back. Everything had changed. It was now distinctly a block of flats they lived in, on the top floor. I climbed up, very worried that they had gone, or been misunderstood, or something. When I saw them I realised how much had altered. They were dressed, sensible, more intelligent and generally sociable than before. I was so relieved to see this that I ran forward into the old woman’s arms, and we wept uncontrollably to be reunited in this way.

Here the dreamer is probably dealing with his feelings connected with his mother – the old woman.

Useful questions and hints:

What is the atmosphere of the apartment or what am I doing in connection with it?

Am I involved with other people, and if so in what way?

Is this apartment one I have lived in – if so what were the major experiences or life I experienced there?

Try Being the Person or Thing or Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Ape

Impulsive unreasoned urges such as self centred grabbing of food or sexual expression without concern for the other person; mischievousness; mimicry; instinctive or intuitive wisdom about relationships, social interactions and life; folly or foolishness or feeling an idiot.

Can represent a world of experience human beings have lost and feel sorrow at its absence. Many humans have also lost the wonderful directness and ability to express their wide range of responses to life and people. In developing self consciousness, with its labyrinth of ideas and decisions, humans lost a sense of oneness with life around them. Animals have enormous remembered wisdom; remembered through instincts and complex social codes. Without it humans can feel alone in the world, a meaningless existence in the midst of uncaring circumstance. They are confronted by choices which, because they have lost an awareness of their instinctive wisdom, they often feel inadequately equipped to deal with. This wisdom is still accessible to humans who know how to listen to the unconscious, and thus discover the enormous wealth of information they have about such things as social behaviour and body language. The ape can depict this wisdom, especially if it is white haired. Or it might show the personal folly of trying to let instincts dominate us now we have self awareness. Idioms: He is just aping.

Animals have enormous remembered wisdom; remembered through instincts and complex social codes. Without it humans can feel alone in the world, a meaningless existence in the midst of uncaring circumstance. They are confronted by choices which, because they have lost an awareness of their instinctive wisdom, they often feel inadequately equipped to deal with. This wisdom is still accessible to humans who know how to listen to the unconscious, and thus discover the enormous wealth of information they have about such things as social behaviour and body language. The ape can depict this wisdom, especially if it is white haired. Or it might show the personal folly of trying to let instincts dominate us now we have self awareness. See mammal brain; animals.

Idioms: He is just aping.

The following is taken from a man’s dream journal, in which he describes how he feels when he identifies with the image of an ape.

EXAMPLE: I feel like a powerful ape at the moment. I am not holding myself back in regard to my fellow creatures. I am ready to fight, play, love, laugh. All the different bits of me are available. The question I am asking myself is how do you get people to feel it – that basic animal experience of oneself. The wonderful experience of existing, of being alive with all the powers of a living creature – physical strength, emotions of anger, tenderness, passion and sexual excitement, curiosity, awe and wonder in meeting life and the stars.

Useful questions are:

What is the non verbal, spontaneous and responsive part of me doing in this dream and in my life?

Am I on good terms with this natural part of me?

What does my dream ape want, or what is it expressing?

What can I bring to my daily life from it?

See If you use Talking As it may help you discover the natural part of you. Or – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Ape-man Half man Half Monster

This is a very important figure in dreams. As much as we would like to think of ourselves as civilised and refined humans, we are still governed by patterns of behaviour obvious in animals. We fight, kill, lie and cheat for the sake of sex, follow leaders and generally are obviously still animals. Part of becoming a really mature human is to meet and transform the animal in us. That does NOT mean kill or suppress it. It means allowing its enormous potential to be met and released. It means healing the internal pains and conflicts that inflict that deep level of our being. It means meeting the enormous power of fear, sex and anger, and redirecting their energy into creativity and human action.  See: ape and animals.

The ape-man or half animal represent the part of us that is still partly animal, and can, if not met and transformed create a lot of emotional confusion and pain. The reason is that it is a powerful part of us and can influence us without us being aware of it in us. But when made conscious and understood can be a wonderful strength and source of insight. See the quote by Jung in antlers; and also mammal brain.

Example: Dreamt I was in a room, or storeroom, full of chimpanzees. I had to leave them. Some of them opened the door. It was not locked, and I didn’t lock it, but I went back in and asked them not to open the door, as there was a busy road nearby, and they might get run over. As I spoke, one was standing near me who was now almost as tall as myself. The features had become almost human, female. She seemed very sad, perhaps because she was only half human. I felt deep links of sympathy.

A beautiful dream showing the deep connection we have with the animals. Talking to them shows a respect and awareness of them in ones life, and it communicates and helps bring together the instinctive drives that may have been neglected and so  could not adapt to the world we live in.

Example: I was saving a very young white wolf from a half man half wolf monster. Someone was with me and we were working together to save it. Finally after much struggle I coaxed it up the wooded path and it ran up the street. I went back to the monster to distract it. I glanced behind me one more time and saw the young white wolf was fully grown now. And that’s where my dream ended.

A wonderful example of accepting and helping the animal that we are to grow and mature in our life.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I aware of this part of my nature? See animals for more information.

What are its influences on me – they could be aggression, sex, non rational behaviour?

Read conditioned reflexes to understand how the animal in us can alter our behaviour.

See Street Wisdom; Levels of the Brain –  Programmed – Being the Person or Thing – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Aphrodisiac

Stimulating someone or being stimulated sexually. If taking an aphrodisiac, possibly showing that you have been sexually stimulated by an event or meeting with someone. This may be something like going to a party and seeing someone who arouses you, or watching a film or reading a book – or possibly that ones imagination is doing the stimulating. It could also suggest you are feeling you need stimulus or that your natural sexual drives are lacking or low.

Useful questions are:

Is my dream about feeling turned on or needing external stimulus?

What is it in the dream that is the aphrodisiac, and what does that suggest?

Am I meeting something new sexually here?

Apnea

40 million Americans are estimated to be chronically ill with sleep disorders. Few people recognise their condition and its cause however. Signs of it are chronic tiredness needing constant stimulants to keep going during the day; constant falling asleep during work, talks, driving, inability to wake easily in the morning. As sleep plays an equally important part in healthy long life as nutrition and exercise, it is important to assure its quality. If our pattern and quality of sleep is disturbed, we may fail to notice the influence of such drinks as coffee, chocolate and alcohol, all of which disturb sleep.

One of the major sleep disorders is called sleep apnea. This condition causes the sufferer to stop breathing for periods of ten seconds to a minute or more. The person is therefore aroused to waking state, or near it, over and over during the night. This may underlie the recurrent nightmare some people have of feeling suffocated. This condition, if suspected, needs a doctor’s help.

About 60% of all cases of chronic insomnia stem from mental or physical ailments.  These include depression, sleep apnea (a disorder in which breathing stops dozens — even hundreds — of times a night) and periodic limb movements (which usually involve leg jerks, repeated every few seconds for hours on end).  Sleepers may awaken numerous times, but so briefly, awakenings go unremembered in the morning.

The benefits of considering 24-hour sleep patterns in patients who complain of excessive daytime sleepiness become apparent in workups for sleep apnea, a sleep-induced respiratory impairment.  Many patients who complain of nighttime snoring-snorting episodes and daytime sleepiness do not connect the two.  A focus primarily on a patient’s daytime sleep problems may delay the diagnosis of sleep apnea for months or years, and the possible serious effects of the condition call for prompt diagnosis.

The most likely candidates for sleep apnea are middle-aged overweight men, but apnea can occur in either sex and at any age.  Sleep apnea is strongly linked to cardiovascular disorders such as stroke, hypertension, and coronary artery disease.  In addition to the snorting, gasping, and bouts of hypoxia during the night, the total sleep profile of a patient with sleep apnea includes
excessive daytime sleepiness, sleep attacks, marked movement during nighttime sleep, diaphoresis, enuresis, morning headaches, decreased sex drive, and occasional cognitive changes if the condition persists untreated.  Apneic patients usually have little trouble falling asleep–and thus seldom complain of insomnia–but their sleep may be interrupted upwards of 100 times a night by the episodes.

Apocalypse

The end of the world, and the fears that go with it, depict the powerful and threatening inner and outer changes that accompany major transitions. The transition from childhood to adolescence for instance is the end of the world that existed for the whole lifetime of the individual up until that point. Such points of transition occur several times in the life of anyone who dares to grow and adapt. Menopause for women, the leaving home of children, the loss of a job, retirement, can all be represented by the end of the world – or a world.

Social changes also bring enormous stress and the ending of a way of life to many individuals. Some changes, such as the end of social welfare would be the end of the world for that individual.

Useful questions:

What is it that is radically changing in myself or my environment?

How am I meeting the changes going on in my life and circumstances?

What is the dream showing me about these changes?

See: end of world.

Apologising-Apology

Remember that apologising is different to saying sorry.

Nearly always when people dream about someone they know they automatically believe the dream is about that person. But when we think of our friend or partner our thoughts are not them – just our thoughts and feelings about them.

Your dreams are not a good indication about what other people think and are usually a reflection of your own feelings and desires. We desire to have our difficult feelings justified or acknowledged, so maybe that is what your dream depicted.

Dreaming of apologising: This suggests a feeling of inadequacy in some department of life; feelings of having acted against, or thinking of acting against your own strongest drives; a sense of not having lived your best; a sense that you are not living up to other people’s expectations, or that you are not liked by, or not as good as, other people; realisation of a mistake or lack.

Being apologised to: A recognition that some aspect of a relationship or experience has been, or is, unjust or unwarranted according to yourself. Your dreams are not a good indications about what other people think and are usually a reflection of your own feelings and desires.

Useful questions are:

What am I apologising for and does this apply in any way to waking events?

Is this an apology I am giving or receiving, or is it an expression of guilt?

If being apologised to are you accepting or rejecting the apology?

Apparitions

Apparitions are often images that have been repressed emotions and are now pressing for attention. They are often accompanied by fear or scary feelings. The fear is way to hold off the actual feelings that we do not wish to feel.

See: ghost.

Appendix

Something within yourself that may become a problem; an internal problem; possibly referring to the appendix itself. But it is often a psychological or a physical or energy problem as the following example shows. The man was using LifeStream.

Example: The movement involved not only the hips swaying left and right, but also the shoulders, or at least, whole rib cage, swinging left and right, in opposition to the hips. The result of this was an extraordinary amount of pain internally. The areas of pain were appendix area, liver area, left and right side of chest.

So intense was the pain I could only do the movement slowly and carefully at first. I was surprised at the degree of pain, also at the pain in the right of the chest, and area I have never felt discomfort. The nearest I can arrive at a description is to liking it to muscular cramp. As one massages such cramp it gradually melts. Such was the internal feelings, as if the intense pain were being massaged away, broken down, dispersed, as a lump melted.

As the pain was dispersed, the movement became more flowing and active. Last week I had to rest frequently during this movement, but this week it kept on for 30 or 40 minutes causing much heat and perspiration. Since then the pain and appendix difficulty has gone and never appeared again.

If you have had appendicitis: Feelings you associate with that time.

Having appendix out: Inner pain or problem needing attention or being attended to.

Useful questions are:

What am I vaguely aware of that might be a grumbling problem needing attention?

Do I have actual discomfort in the area of my appendix – lower right abdomen – if so maybe I should have a check?

What do I need to remove from my attitudes or from my past experience?

See Life’s Little Secrets and Easy Dream Interpretation

Applause

Desire for acclaim or giving oneself acclaim; something that you feel is worthwhile or praiseworthy – define what it is from the dream events; approval or need for approval. Such a need may be covering a deep personal uncertainty.

Useful questions are:

Am I giving or receiving applause – whatever it is can I define what it is for?

What is it my dream is suggesting is praiseworthy and how does that apply to me?

Do I feel the applause is deserved and why or why not?

Apple

Because of the way Genesis was presented it often represents temptation and the Garden of Eden. It can also link with the fruits of ones action, or the consequences of action, the fruit of ones labour; also pleasure, food or sustenance. See: food.

Here is a re-translation of the piece about the apple and the Garden of Eden.

It entered their consciousness asking, “Did Elohim really mean that I should not totally experience material existence? Surely, if I entered the sphere of opposites I would gain knowledge and experience from it?

And the divine wisdom in men warned them of the consequence of this, saying, you must not centre your consciousness in matter, for by that you will die to your cosmic awareness and have only consciousness through physical senses.

But the forces of individuation, flowing into matter, seemed to say that if they allowed their being to enter into and experience physical life, how could they lose their eternal consciousness? Instead they would gain knowledge of the opposites, of the paradox that Elohim knows.

Then the desires for this fired their will, for many spirits wished to know life in physical realms; to experience fully the knowledge of time and space, of the incompleteness of being just male or female, of looking out through the senses of a physical body, and knowing the feel of winds and water, separation and aloneness. Thus came about the fall of the angels, and many spirits fell into life within a physical body.

Here are two example showing how apples can be used in dreams:

Example: I was on a plane or a journey. On my right sat an American, very flabby, with a paunch. I was eating an Apple, (I had been on a fruit fast during the day), and my elbow sometimes touched his paunch, it felt lifeless, lacking vitality. I told him he ought to eat only apples for a while, and all the dead flesh would fall off him.

Then a young Chinese man came to me and pointed out a line marked on my apple, on the green, less developed side. He said every apple had it if one looked, and under the line was a hair, “hair of discontent.” He said this was poisonous, and best not eaten. I slid my fingernail under the line, and pulled out a long hair. I thought this was wonderful, and that I had been given real wisdom of the East.

Example: The words then came, “Eat not.” I have a strong feeling this was the forbidden apple, and in some old way, this was why I had not been able to eat apples lightly, because for the past few months, if I ate apples I suffered strong acid indigestion. Something seems wrong with my digestive system anyway, as I have had acid indigestion, pains, and now piles. I felt, though, that the apples could now beaten, and have in fact being able to eat them without ill effects since this session.

Idioms: American as apple pie; an apple a day keeps the doctor away; apple of his eye; bad apple; Big Apple; the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; upset the apple cart.

Useful Questions and Hints:

In the dream was it a fruit you enjoyed, a temptation or something else?

What were you doing with the apple, or how did you use it?

What did you feel in the dream about the apple?

Try using Talking As, as a way of understanding the apple in your dream.

Appointment

Reminder of something we unconsciously feel we are about to meet, or something we need to meet. This can be about the importance of a relationship, or of taking care of a person or situation. An appointment can suggest the need to ‘get together’ with someone or that aspect of yourself, or that there are important things to deal with. See: romantic date for romantic appointment.

It depends upon what led to cancelling or missing the appointment, ask yourself was it something that you really wanted or was it something that you wanted to avoid.

Probably an agreement or agreements that you yourself wanted.

This is usually about something that is important and so take notice of it.

Usually it refers to you meeting the feeling you have about death. If you continually avoid the appointment it points to you fear of death – best to meet it. See near death experiences.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this dream about trying to live up to the imperatives of work, other people’s needs or deadlines I have set myself?

Is this about remembering something such as the importance of something in my life?

Have you agreed to do something and forgotten?

Try Talking As or Processing Dreams to see if you can get a clearer idea of the message of the dream.

Apron

It might point to the mother role, household work, or getting to work on a family situation. It is therefore an indication in some dreams of being capable and of getting things done. It is sometimes linked with an elderly woman in the dream and depicts motherhood, or a grandmother power in your life.

Apron’s are sometimes worn by workmen or women in a restaurant or service situation, so it might indicate a role you are in or a situation you are involved in.

Useful questions:

In what situation is the apron appearing – work, housework, or as a memory of someone?

What are my feelings in connection with this, and what part of my life do those feelings connect with?

Is there a feeling of capability in the dream – if so, capable of what?

Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming

Aquarium

Your inner world of feelings, thoughts and intuitions. It probably represents the ability to see or understand some of the usually unconscious processes in your body and yourself. It can also relate to the unconscious processes going on under the surface. Being empty or full suggests whether you are allowing your inner feelings to become know or remain empty. See: fish and sea creatures.

Example: During the weekend I had two dreams, although I was lucid at the time. I was in a huge indoor aquarium. The water was very clear, but had a slight yellowish or straw colour tinge to it. I was swimming under the water looking at the many creatures. I had a sense of being within a very ancient environment. The creatures were all primordial, each functioning in its own distinct way, some of which would be dangerous to me if I related to them wrongly – i.e. if I let them contact my skin, or get into my cavities. But I was fascinated and felt a sense of wonder and privilege. As I swam I began to feel that I was actually looking within myself to the ancient processes of the blood and cells. I had a sense that we are all the time immersed in this ancient aquarium, relating to its creatures one way or another.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I becoming aware of within myself?

What does the theme of this dream suggest about my inner feelings?

What creatures are in the aquarium, and are there poisonous or dangerous things in me or is it beauty?

Use Processing Dreams to explore your dream.

Arab

This depends whether you are of Arab or Islamic ethnicity. If you are then it is depicting an aspect of yourself. If not, then you need to define what your feelings and associations you have with Arabs and particularly the dream figure. In general it may represent masculinity, passionate manhood, possessiveness. See: Abroad.

Useful questions are:

If I imagine myself as this person what do I feel? For help doing this see Stand in Role under peerdream work.)

What is my relationship with this dream character and what might that represent in my waking life?

What am I doing in the dream – running; waiting searching; bargaining; pleading; looking for love – and can I see that in my life in any way?

Archaeologist

This is primarily about uncovering or discovering your buried past, things you may have long put behind you or tried to forget. Sometimes this links with your far distant ancestors or aspects of your present personality you carry from the far past. But even so it is about finding or becoming aware of aspects of you from the past.

Freud didn’t actually explore very far into this amazing underworld. If we think of his journey as something like an archaeologist digging into a great tomb, then what Freud ran into was a mass of rubble blocking the way to further exploration. It was rubble that in general has to be cleared before the vastness of that interior can be appreciated. The rubble, in fact is made up of the massive amount of experiences, feelings, angers, urges, that we manage to keep below the surface of awareness; that we hold beyond the threshold of waking, imprisoning them in the darkness of the unconscious.

Depth psychology began to explore beyond the boundaries that Freud reached. Its practitioners discovered that not only were there dark memories and hurts in that realm; not only repressed and forbidden behaviours and fantasies, but also huge areas of what was later called transpersonal experience. By this they meant that in that dark realm our personal self links with our family, with humanity, and with the hidden forces of the universe. This was particularly explored and mapped when LSD was used for psychotherapeutic purposes, and an unaccountable number of people could look into the realm themselves.

So in dreaming of archaeology we may uncover scenes of past murder, or babies left and our real self buried alive, but beyond that is the uncovering of vast cultural treasures, of an amazing expansion or personal knowledge.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the archaeologist doing and what does that suggest?

Is something being uncovered or dug up, and if I describe myself as that what do I define about myself?

What are my feelings in the dream?

You can be an archaeologist by exploring the buried message of your dreams by using Processing Dreams and Peer Dream Work.

Archaeologist Archaeology

If you are an archaeologist or involved in the work, then it relates to whatever is concerning or interesting you at the moment. But it will still probably have a more interior meaning.

It links to the process of gradually bringing your past experience to consciousness. Literally it shows you digging into what are usually your unconscious layers of yourself to unearth personal meaning and perhaps deal with past problems that were buried. See archaeologist.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Have I been ‘digging’ into myself in any way – if so what have I uncovered?

Have circumstances or events uncovered what was previously buried in me?

What part of my past are my dream images suggesting?

You can be an archaeologist by exploring the buried message of your dreams by using Processing Dreams and Peer Dream Work.

What is the archaeologist doing and what does that suggest?

Is something being uncovered or dug up, and if I describe myself as that what do I define about myself?

What are my feelings in the dream?

Have I been ‘digging’ into myself in any way – if so what have I uncovered?

Have circumstances or events uncovered what was previously buried in me?

What part of my past are my dream images suggesting?

Archer

It is all about the person who has the bow and what it is used for. It could be used for competition archery; it could be for hunting; it could be for killing someone; it could be for warfare; it could be for fun.

It helps to see what the role is and to see what that suggests – so what are you in competition with; what are you hunting; who are you wishing to kill; what is the conflict you are engaged in; what is the fun? You could use Stand in role to find out more.

Many boys who live in the country make bows and arrows as they go through a phase of being hunters and attaining manhood. Many youngster go through similar phases as they become independent – so scooter, bicycle and skate board.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is the archer you or a dream figure?

If you what are your motives – or if not you use Stand in role.

Archer

See: Aim.

Architect

Here is the image of the process or function in us that plans, that designs in a creative and perhaps considering way. It may be about plans for a better or different living condition, or about business or even a relationship. The architect is also pointing to a process of checking and directing progress.

This might be about how you wish your ‘space’ to be, or how to use the space you have. So it might relate to your mind or attitudes. Or does you dream show you making an architects plan of your inner life or even your future?

As an architect you or your dream character can be the architect of future change.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I planning to change or build in my life, and does this dream relate to that?

Does this dream reflect or comment on any of my dreams or goals in any way?

What is the architect in my dream doing, and what can I gather from that if I translate it into everyday life?

Find out more by using Processing Dreams and Talking As.

If I imagine my self as the architect how do I describe myself. For help doing this see Standing in Roles.

Architecture

My exploration of dreams suggest that the external objects of culture such as houses and towns we see around us and take for granted, actually produce in us the release of a massive amount of information and deeply felt experience. Most often however, we fail to appreciate this as it is covered, obscured, by the dominant sensory impressions and taught responses.

In fact any architecture in a dream can be a wonderful entrance into our history and our past. We tend to understand from the shape and quality of the building things we seldom put into words, and yet are very powerful inwardly.

Pregnant women frequently dream about houses, architecture and planning a new extension. That pregnant women’s dreams might hold some special significance was first recognised as long as 4,000 years ago. According to ancient Mesopotamian texts, the Hittites performed cleansing ceremonies on women considered to have been “contaminated” by dreams they had before giving birth. Modern analysis of pregnant women’s dreams has increased since the 1960s, with researchers collecting dream reports from hundreds of women in various stages of pregnancy.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What do you feel when you see buildings or a house in your dream?

Can you put into words what you feel or sense in the architecture?

The questions in The House in Your Dream may help to define what you know unconsciously.

It could also be a help to  use Standing in Role and also Talking As.

Are there dangers in spreading your wings?

There are dangers in virtually everything we do in our everyday life. People die from normal activities such as driving a car, eating out and the electricity in their home. We take it for granted that knowing and avoiding such dangers is a regular part of life. So it is good to look at the possible dangers of crossing the frontier into wider awareness and transformation. 

Years ago a young man talked to me about developing his intuition. He was going to use a crystal ball to do this. I discovered he was convinced pictures and scenes actually appeared in the ball, rather than it being a focus for his mental imagery. That lack of understanding could put him in a dangerous relationship with his own imagination and imagery. He would not arrive at a balanced evaluation of what he was experiencing.

 The danger of this lack of understanding applies to lucidity also. You are dealing with powerful mental, emotional and spiritual processes. It is important to understand what the dream process is capable of and what it does. Remember, a dream is a full surround virtual reality activating all your senses and abilities. When you are in it, it is just as real to you as the physical world. But there is a huge difference. The environment, people, animals and objects are all projections. In the film Matrix, the hero is at one point put into a lucid virtual reality called ‘the construct’. He cannot understand what is happening to him, and his guide says, “What you see now is what we call residual self image. It is a mental projection….” Your dream is exactly that, an amazing moving and living projection in which you act and interact with YOURSELF. There is, in the widest or cosmic sense, nothing else. The dream process transforms your emotions, your beliefs and hopes, your fears and traumas, your intuitions and creative visions, into people, environments, animals and events. Understanding that is vital. 

The second danger is avoidance. Because everything you meet is an aspect of yourself – either your small or cosmic self – any avoidance of a frightening dream figure, a difficult environment is an avoidance of yourself. The figures and environments are created out of your own mental, emotional and sexual energy. Avoiding them means losing portions of your potential and your physical and emotional energy. I know this as a vital personal truth. At one time I suffered what is now called ME. I was so tired I barely wanted to stand up. As I reclaimed my dream figures the tiredness disappeared. 

Your dream characters and animals are intelligent and purposeful. They have a semi independent life within you until you integrate them. You create them unconsciously using your energy, positive feelings and motivations. Avoiding them leads to the loss of your full potential and health. I am not suggesting you immediately meet and integrate all your many aspects. That takes time, courage and a form of strength that only grows as you mature in this new environment. What is important is to remember your goals – integration and wholeness – growth into a new level of ability and maturity, a new connection with others and yourself. You do this by claiming and loving all that you are. 

The third danger is the lack of understanding about your own growing abilities. In crossing the frontier into your fuller life, you have opened a gate wider than you have in the past. Usually only a few dreams and feelings have been allowed through into waking life, and for some people not even dreams have emerged. So it is important to remember that the world of lucidity can sometimes emerge into waking life if it is important enough. Sometimes there is an urge from within that needs to be known. This breaks through in the form of a waking dream. That sounds easy, but remember that a dream creates a full surround virtual reality. When the breakthrough occurs you see people, perhaps hear a voice talking to you, or see an animal that is not physically present. If you do not understand the process you may develop crazy anxious ideas and feelings about it. So take this in and make it something you understand. A vision, a hallucination, is the dream process occurring while you are awake. It is not a sign of madness, but an indication that you are now able to access your intuition and unconscious senses more capably. 

The fourth danger is in not knowing your territory. This is not a big danger, but it can be disturbing if you are suddenly in an environment you have no understanding or concept of. So recognise that there are five major levels of consciousness, each producing very different ways of experiencing yourself.

  Dreamless sleep – usually experienced as unconsciousness. If entered lucidly it becomes an infinite ocean of awareness in which you are an integral part of the cosmos and all that exists in it. Here there is the possibility of gaining insight into how your present personality was formed out of this ocean of possibilities and collective experience.  

Arena Amphitheatre Coliseum

This usually represent the focus of attention on whatever is happening in the arena. It is a mental ability to bring an unimaginable number of associated bits of information and experience together in considering something. The many people in an arena therefore show the amount of interest. It can also suggest an area or focus of conflict or contest.

The arena is also a place of drama, where the deepest moments of life are played out or examined. It therefore suggests something being dramatised or considered by you, something being witnessed, or a testing of oneself, as in a sporting event, especially if the area is a stadium rather than an arena. It can also show participation with others in life or endeavours. See: theatre.

If it is a coliseum type arena it often has associated links with being killed by wild animals or gladiators, or being in the role of gladiator. Usually it is about releasing fears or struggles from within you that you had not met before and may be frightened of or even terrified. As I often explain, whenever we dream its images are not like real life, because a dream is nothing like outer life where things can hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear; so all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind.

Sometimes the entrance to the arena through a dark tunnel can be fears, struggles, or meeting powerful sexual urges and either be beaten down by them or deal with them. See Meeting yourself; Energy Sex and Dreams

It is a place in which you can be a spectator, a judge or centre of attention.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is there a big issue in my life I am in conflict about, examining or rehearsing in some way?

What is my attention focussing on at the moment or my dream is showing as important?

Am I involved with others in a way that is now being felt as important?

Use Acting on Your Dream to see what it suggests.

Argue Argued Arguing

This could refer to something you are feeling conflict about and have different but conflicting feelings about. Or it might show you releasing feelings about someone that you do not tell them to their face. It might refer to feelings about parents arguing, so depict the anxiety or anger you felt at the time.

Conflicts can occur between the many facets of oneself such as your body needs and your intellectual ideas about life; your sexual or instinctive nature and your sense of what is right from your upbringing; between your fears, and your appetites and desires emerging from vulnerabilities and neurotic behaviour, and your deep core of life. See The Life Will and aggression.

Arguing with opposite sex: This might refer to a tension existing between you and your partner, about memories of difficulties with an ex partner, or about a conflict existing between your rational outgoing self and your feeling intuitive self. See Dealing with an Ex.

Arguing with authority or police: Might show a struggle you are experiencing between the pressure you feel from society or expectations of others and what you want or feel. See police.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What or who am I arguing with in my dream, and what connections can I make with that?

Do I resolve the argument, and if so what are the key factors of the resolution?

If I do not resolve the argument, how can I resolve it in my mind and feelings now I am awake?

It may  be useful to use Carry the Dream Forward and use Processing Dreams.

It can help to deal with anger and aggression by using The Cushion Technique.

Arid

This suggests that little or nothing is growing in your life or activities. It may refer specifically to your relationship(s). On occasion it might refer to attempts to conceive.

The lack of water also may mean that you are not allowing your emotions to express. See: desert.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I feeling empty or meaningless at the moment?

Am I questioning what is emerging from my life?

What would I say are the fruits of my life?

Try exploring your dream with Processing Dreams. Also try reading What we need to remember about dreams.

Arising

This difficult to answer as it could be about something new arising in your life, the pain arising from abandonment, the habits arising from ones cultural heritage, the needs arising from your own childhood emotional dependence or your need for warmth and love as a baby, or even impressions arising from this mental realm, or it could be a building arising, or any of a thousand other things. So first see if you can find an entry about what is arising, such as abandonment, dependence, or sexual feelings.

See flying if you  are literally arising, or if you are arising from a chair it is about a change, an active phase following being inactive. See: postures and body movements.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Ask yourself what the arising is about, and use Processing Dreams to see if you can define it.

Does it link with any feeling you have experienced lately?

If you imagine yourself in the dream, and visualise the action it might bring insights. See Carry the Dream Forward.

Ark

ark An area of yourself that has been shaped by following your innermost urges and intuitions, as opposed to those arising from fear, passion, ambition. Or something can come out of the ark and thus be old fashioned. For some people the ark represents a survival aid in times of stress. So it might depict a means of escape from a difficult situation.

An ark is a safe refuge, therefore feelings or attitudes that have some strength and survival value.

Example: The ark is obviously connected  with religious beliefs, and I see Christ as an Ark. The only way I can explain this is to ask you to imagine a being that has been able to develop a symbiotic relationship with all life forms at the level of sentience or consciousness. In our own view of life, such a being is incredibly highly evolved. But also imagine that this being does not have a physical body, existing as it dies outside the limitations of time and space as we usually know it. The image I saw was of an immense being standing in space by earth, absorbing all human experience. This being was an Ark because, from what was being shown me, even if humanity destroyed itself, all its experience would be preserved and expressed again in another time and place. Nothing of importance would be lost. Even such an apparently small thing as a child’s love for its Grandma would be preserved and allowed to live again.

Carter uses the image of the ark in his poem So That We Build, and suggests a mistake or a transgression prior to deliverance. So it might be that in your dream is might say you have survived a transgression.

This suggests that the bonds we create and live by are a part of the system itself. What survives is to create a bonding system which actually survives and perpetuates itself. It cannot do this without utilising the hidden but powerful underlying systems in cosmic processes. There is another fundamental action – it is that when we move against an implicit social conditioning, we feel the pressure or pain of that – whether it is sexual, clothing, or whatever it is. When we actually face the discomfort of that we actually meet consciousness. We discover the underlying feelings and forces that have created the conditioning in the first place. So in facing out discomforts we may uncover a new person we can become.

The biblical account of Noah taking pairs of the animals aboard the Ark to preserve them suggests the preservation of our animal instincts not the repression or destruction. The meaning of taking pairs – one of each sex – is that we can uplift these animal tendencies we find within. This says that if we do this then we are the ark, and our body the structure of the ark.

Exampl: Hello Tony I am puzzled by this recent dream as it seems so at odds with my conscious understanding: I return to my home town, a small seaside place and find that where the Church I used to attend, which was close to my mother’s retirement home, stood, my Mother had had it demolished and built a small supposed to be luxury but, actually in places, a bit over the top modern hotel. I went into the new place looking for my room but it was a new hotel room full of sports – wear.. in the dream it had the name of my second son …Roddy’s room. Although the space the hotel took up was large the 3 bedrooms were close almost crammed together at the end of a long hallway.

As I explored I came upon people building a strange boat type ark. It was ready to go to sea and after some indecision involving a man who said I could not go, I leapt on but all the doors were shut so I sat right at the front on a sort of step. The boat was on the promenade and then turned sharply onto a slipway and began to move quickly down the slip-way. I looked at the sea hoping it would be calm as I was on this exposed bit and as I looked I saw that the sea was a massive wave, tall as a skyscraper very dark and huge and we were racing towards it. I realised there was a young woman beside me and as I frantically thought how to escape she said “What a sadist to send us this wave.” I woke myself up very frightened. S.

S. – I see that despite all the promised luxury your actual living space is diminished – the three rooms at the end of a long hallway. The ark suggests a way out of the mess, based on old ideas of religion. But in fact the door is closed to you and as the young woman remarks, “What a sadist to send us this wave.” Yet I feel that the wave is the way out, even though frightening. This may not seem a very good idea, but you have to remember that when we dream we are creating images that clothe feelings and emotions. If you can see that facing what is an uncomfortable feeling and going through it frees you from it. Either that or you could visualise other alternatives

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is there a difficult situation I am trying to escape from?

What am I trying to save or salvage from my present life?

What part in my dream is this ark playing?

Am I in some way the ark? Using Processing Dreams may help.

Arm

Arms usually refer to your ability to love, give, take, create, defend, reach out. Our arms, especially the arm we use most, can also represent all the struggle and effort we have put into life, what we have given and taken, what skills we have learned or created in the work and labour of life and love.

Arm or arms reaching toward you: This can mean an extension of love or even aggressiveness. You would know from the feeling the move stimulates.

Example: Tonight it happened again and several memories kept pushing into awareness. One in particular is a memory of you as a baby too young to able to speak. It was when mum and I ran a guest house and we had you in a pram in the front garden. One of the guest, a woman who looked okay came and said she wanted to walk you in the pram down the road. She started to push the pram, suddenly you looked at me without making a sound and stretched your arms toward me. It was a signal that hit me so hard emotionally I ran and took the pram from her. I think she was mortified by my actions. I don’t suppose you have any memory of it but for me it was a powerful enough to  remain imprinted in my memory.

Right arm: If you are right handed this indicates your active outgoing self, your conscious and capable skills such as you express with this hand and arm. It is the part of you obvious to others and yourself, your strength or lack of it. Injury or malformation of this arm indicates inability to be creative and productive in the outer world. It shows problems regarding manifesting or making real, what you wish or will to do.

Left arm: The left arm is those supportive qualities, those strengths and traits that express in daily life underlying and making possible the action of the right arm. In other words they are the loyalties, the care and strength of support, almost unconscious energy we put into what we do with our right hand and arm – our outer activities. The left arm is the qualities that support outer activities and relationships. In a certain way it represent confidence, the absence of which would undermine all the external things we would be trying to accomplish.

Example: Dreamt Pete was in my father’s shop in London. Someone had shot him in the left bicep and I was trying to help him. I had a small box on the counter and there was fluid or blood in it, and I put the hurt muscle in it hoping to heal it. When the gunshot flesh was in the blood the blood bubbled and effervesced, becoming hot. I felt the flesh would not be of any use now, but wasn’t sure. In the end though I was considering cleaning away the injured flesh from the arm. All I could see were the sinews with a small amount of flesh on them – no muscle in between. But I began to feel that gradually new cells might grow and develop into a new muscle – granulate.

The dream was explored, and it was seen that it was the dreamer himself who was injured. His father had never shown interest in him and this had undermined his confidence. It led him to weep with the pain of this. He was in his forties, and felt a complete failure, yet the dream promised new growth which turned out be true.

Injury to: Loss of confidence or ability to reach out or create; loss of or psychological trauma regarding those abilities. Left is the supportive feelings. Right is extroverted activity.

Tied up: Sense of restriction to activities.

Bicep: Strength; sense of being capable.

Idioms: Chance one’s arm; give one’s right arm; arm twisting; keep at arms length; with open arms; one arm tied behind back, babe in arms; strong arm tactics. See: left; right; body; Example under white.

Useful Questions and Hints:

If my arm is injured, what in my life am lacking or I feeling inadequate in?

What am I doing with my arm(s) and how does that link with waking life?

If this is a positive dream, what of myself is it bringing my attention to?

Explore the depths of the meaning by using Talking As.

Armageddon

The aim of the Dream Dictionary is to help you make connections between your dreams and your everyday life; to discover more fully the powerful emotions and reactions that unconsciously direct your decisions and responses in waking. This is not an attempt to give you merely ideas to play with, to agree or disagree with, like fortune telling. It can lead to real insights which empower you to make more of yourself, and find your way through the many decisions with which life confronts you.

Your Guru the Dream

Your Guru Your Body

Dreams are one of nature’s miracles, not the result of a wandering mind in sleep. A dream is an interface between the process of life, our core self and our conscious personality. Life existed quite capably for millions of years before the self-aware human personality came on the scene. In all that time the ancestors of the modern human being survived without having a rational mind to reason with, or self consciousness to ask such questions as ‘What do I do about this?’ Nevertheless survival strategies were still developed in their unconscious intelligence. Dreams express this unconscious wisdom that was developed in humans and animals through millions of years of Life experience.

Life’s age old unconscious processes are still the major part of our being, yet we seldom consciously meet them – except in dreams. As our physical and psychological health depend upon a reasonable co-operation between the spontaneous processes of life – such as breathing, digestion and the thousands of other life sustaining activities and our conscious decisions and actions, the encounter in dreams is vital. As I often point out to those I am advising we are a human face on a long line of beautiful animals. In fact “You ride an ancient beast.” The ancient beast is your body, and your conscious self is the modern and recent rider of it. Some ‘riders’ do not understand their animal needs – and the fact that we have several levels of brain that are independent of each other proves this. Still active in us are our Reptile Brain, Our mammalian Brain, and our Human Brain, and the reptile and mammalian brains are still very active and constitute a large part of our human unconscious. See  – Brain Levels and Dreams –  Life’s Little Secrets and Levels of Awareness in Sleeping and Waking.

So, no plant or creature grows from a dead seed, and each living seed carries within it all the past gathered from all its forebears. So, the seed in your mother’s womb is as old as and even older than human kind, and you carry that wisdom or memories in you. But in this life you developed a new brain, and the memories you gathered this time are what you built your personality from, but beneath that is a very ancient self. To meet this ancient self try using Opening to Life

That suggests that dreams cannot be defined under any one heading. Like human beings, they are enormously varied in what they express. Just as one cannot say the human mind is simply a system of memory, one cannot say dreams are just the reflection of experienced events. The mind also deals with problem solving, predicting outcomes of action, playing with possibilities via imagination, creating the new out of old material, replaying traumatic and disturbing events in order to find ways of meeting them constructively. Dreams, being the mental phenomena they are, deal with all of these issues and more. The following definitions give the main functions observable in dreams.

Dreams are:-

I know how much you might like to skip the Introduction to Dream Dictionary, and if you are tempted to do so, I wholeheartedly ask you to read Summing Up. Without understanding the things given there you are likely to completely miss the point of understanding your dreams. The best technique to enter you dream world – Peer Dream Work

You can start using the Dream Dictionary by entering the word you wish to research into the Search Box on the top right of most pages and clicking the search symbol – or you can read some fuller information below about the dictionary and how best to use it.

But the quickest way is to put your word in the search box. 

It is important in reading the definitions of dream images to realise that not every possible meaning can be covered in this dictionary. So please see if you get the idea of what is being said and allow your own imagination/feelings to fill in the meaning.

There are several ways you can understand the meanings held in your dreams, and there are several levels.

The first is an easily understood level, followed by greater depths:

For instance, speaking as an object or dream person, one needs to take time with it. Learn how to actually describe what you are as that dream object or person. If I dream of a dog, don’t simply describe what you think a dog feels like, but actually take time to tune into the dream image and describe the dog dreamt about. Is it an old or young dog? What is it doing in the dream? Listen to your feelings and describe what it/you feel. Remember that each image is a creation of your own mind and unconscious, so you are really describing yourself. Say whatever comes and consider its value afterwards. Below is a quote from Tiziana Stupia’s book Meeting Shiva 

So below are listed several ways to gain insight and information from your dreams. Take your time with each approach until you get the feel for it, and then experiment with other approaches.

You can enter a key word in the search box. The Dream Dictionary contains interpretations on almost any type of dream subject. So, if you dreamt of a flying saucer landing in a field, and aliens getting out and taking a baby, a snake, and a pregnant dog back into the saucer, you could search separately for each of these subjects in the Dream Dictionary. Find the entry for flying saucer; then the entry for dog, baby, snake, pregnant, and so on. For each entry, find further related entries by looking under ‘Similar Articles’ on the right-hand side of the page. Then see Techniques for Exploring your Dreams.

Each entry gives the general meaning of the dream subject, just as an encyclopedia or dictionary does for a word. Several possible meanings are given. This is because as with our speech the position of the word – the context – gives it special meanings. So, a hot dog would be quite different to a black dog, dog-end or dead dog. Therefore, when you read an entry which has several different meanings, sometimes with a ‘;’ between, it simply means any one of them could apply, which means you need to think about the feelings in your dream, the context, the other imagery used. Please do not fall into the trap that one reviewer made of saying that the whole dictionary is about sex. Of course, sex is one meaning among many others. So, use your own sense of your dream as well as any definitions given.

To really explore the meaning, it is useful to use the Dream Dictionary as it is designed, rather than arrive at a ‘thought out’ interpretation. To see a working example of this see ‘Dream Interpretation Example One‘. 

I no longer offer a personal dream interpretation service, but only occasionally if you manage to send  an interesting dream I will respond – the reason is I am getting past my sell by date being 84.

Note: comments that have any adverts or links to other sites will be deleted.

In the meantime, here is a way to work out your own dream – Getting at Your Dream’s Meaning.

Please note: this a not-for-profit site and it offers real dream interpretations, not dream dictionary features that are not real interpretations. We ask no payment for these interpretations, but it would be a great if you wish to donate anything. I do not ask a fee for what I do, but if you wish to donate you can click on this Paypal Donation  

I have been interested in the health of mind and body since my early teens. I began writing about these subjects in 1956. My fascination for what lay under the surface of the mind led me personally to explore the unconscious using dreams and other mental and physical disciplines. From 1972 – 94 I worked as a psychotherapist using an eclectic, Humanistic Psychology approach which included dream work and releasing the secrets the body holds. My books include Do You Dream; Mind and Movement; The Instant Dream Book; Dream Dictionary; Life’s Little Secrets –Liberating The Body  – and many more. See My Books.

Throughout more than five decades I have been involved in a personal search for the secrets of mind and spirit. In those years I have also taught thousands of people techniques of deep relaxation, meditation, and methods of self exploration using dreams. Wanting to dig deep I explored the use of dreams and taught individuals and groups of people how to use these visions of the night to discover and heal the deepest issues in themselves, and to touch the high ground of their spiritual awareness. I worked for twenty years as a psychotherapist using several approaches, one of which was a way of honouring the body as a doorway to the unconscious mind, the emotions and spiritual experience. See Self-Regulation –  Recognition – Life’s Little Secrets – The LifeStream and Opening to Life

During the sixty years of seeking the wild wondrous beasts of the mind and spirit I dared my own inner adventure. But I also travelled with other people as an ordinary person, not a therapist, sharing their experience of fear and wonder as they unveiled and set loose their fountain of perception. I have travelled countless dream pathways, traversed the timeless with those using awareness enhancing drugs, and wrestled with the vitality of the body as people mimed and shouted their deepest intuitions through movement, dance and voice. See Tony’s Biography

My aim has always to share my findings – actually what I was shown or given from within – was given freely; I never had any teacher or attended a course, of course I read an enormous amount, so I cannot ask for money. If you wish to donate anything to the running of the site you can do so by clicking on https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JYTWAMC4LQLQ4&source=url 

My teacher has been from exploring dreams and occasionally touching the wonder we were born as – not from words written in books about that but by meeting it. See Enlightenment  

Profundización de la comprensión de un sueño; Introducción

In a similar way, by observing dreams and laying bare the emotions and associated ideas and memories we have with the dream imagery, we gradually define our personality, its strengths and weaknesses, we discover new abilities and we grow beyond our old problems, and that in a depth we had never managed previously. I have called this mind watching, but it covers every aspect of human nature, not simply the intellect or thinking.

This mind watching through observation of our dreams first presents information about our personal experiences and memories and how they influenced our growth and influence present responses. Gradually the information arising from such watching leads beyond ones personal self. It shows in many cases how our unique self has arisen from, and has indissoluble links with our forebears, with our culture, with the past as a whole, and with the cosmos itself. It leads from oneself to the edge of the known, and perhaps helps us take a few steps beyond that edge into the unknown, to create new understanding.

This mind watching gradually reveals to us the many aspects of the mind’s working, and with such insight may come the growing ability to use these facets of ourselves. Not only may we discover great vistas of personal memory, but also the roots of our creativity, the subtle senses of our emotions and unconscious, and the treasures of experience we have gathered. See Your Amazing Circle – Self Observation 

So how can we get into this magical world of our dreams and start to harvest the possibilities held there? The following pages of this book are designed to help, guide and inform on how to do this. The book is also a counsellor on what you may find in your dream adventure.

The information about dreams presented in this book has been gathered during fifty years of working with and studying dreams and the dream process. It synthesises the experience of personally helping hundreds of individuals explore their dreams. The examples used have been taken from a collection of over 8000 dreams put onto a computer filing system. The filing system was also used to define general associations with commonly used dream images.

The major input for definition however has arisen from the actual exploration of dreams undertaken by individuals. These are either people I have worked with personally who have deeply felt the emotions and issues behind their dreams, not simply talked them over and come to an intellectual interpretation but a deep insight, or are people who have written up their findings arising from similar work. Added to this is the commonly held associations we have through our language and the way we use imagery within speech. Of course your personal dream imagery may not be using the commonly held associations, or those used by other people, and so you must read the definitions with care and consider if these fit what is implied or dramatised in your dream.

In the entries in the Dictionary are explanations of the many different types of dreams and dream images. Despite some people’s attempt to explain dreams in one simple formula, dreams cover a huge range of phenomena and human experience. Amongst subjects covered in the book are thousands of entries on the researched meaning of the things, people, creatures and places we dream about. There are also many entries on special subjects such as symbols and dreaming; interpreting dreams; recurring dreams; nightmares; sex while asleep; teenage girls love dreams; precognitive dreams; talking in ones sleep; the dream as an adventure; Occultism and Dreams; science sleep and dreams; and many more.

There are a compete list of these Features and the  Archetypes covered.

Therefore, if you have dreamt of such things as your teeth falling out; being chased; or your marriage partner dying, you will find an explanation of your dream in the following pages.

The aim of the book is to help you make connections between your dreams and your everyday life; to discover more fully the powerful emotions and reactions that unconsciously direct your decisions and responses in waking. The book is not an attempt to give you merely ideas to play with, to agree or disagree with, like fortune telling. It can lead to real insights which empower you to make more of yourself, and find your way through the many decisions life confronts you with.

But you can move directly on to Using the Dictionary – or better still read Meaning of Your Dream. 

Dreams are a magical mirror in which your innermost hopes, longings, fears/terrors and genius are made real. They are made real as external environments, people, animals and relationships. It is as if all your deepest feelings, hopes, fear and wonder are projected outward onto a multidimensional screen. It is a world of virtual reality that you feel is real. Unfortunately this wonderful virtual reality world is usually felt as dealing with other people, as externals, like something that can damage us, or something like the Devil that can possess us.

But the greatest truth I have found in exploring dreams – not interpreting them – is that we are alone with ourselves in the world of our dream. If we can acknowledge and admit that our terrors we dream are actually our past hurts that we have not faced presenting themselves for us to heal; that the ghosts and demons that can rampage about our night are embodiments of our fears; that our wonderful visions and insights are an expression of our own infinite potential, then we can walk a pathway to finding what we really are. Audio Introduction to Exploring a Dream

Our Core self is that amazing part of us existing beyond time and space, and was within us from the start of our universe.

I suggest you only try one method at a time and use it until you are capable or it or it doesn’t work for you, then move on to other methods taking time with them until you find what works best for you.

Although the process of dreams might not be a direct attempt to present MEANING, a dream may nevertheless have a great deal of INFORMATION in it. This becomes clearer if we remember that not many years ago it would have appeared highly superstitious or suspect to claim to be able to tell a person details of their health and parentage from a sample of their urine or blood. Today it is common practice. We accept that a growing amount of information can be gained from these unlikely sources. Blood doesn’t contain meaning, but we can gain information from it. In a similar way a sample of our dreams can also tell us an enormous amount. Sometimes this data is obvious, sometimes it needs processing to uncover, as with urine and blood.

Dream Processing – The following dream needs no deep techniques of processing. The word ‘processing’ is used throughout the book instead of analysis. Analysis has the connotation of giving our own thoughts or opinions to the dream. Processing is used to suggest extraction of information which leads to insight. With this particular dream, all it needs is a few facts brought to it to make clear what information it holds. The dream is that of a young woman, Mrs C. L.

It is a bright sunny day. I am walking across a large concrete car park. It is empty except for a huge trailer from a truck. It has BOOTS written on the side, and stands high off the ground. Being 4’ 9’ tall myself I decide to walk underneath. As I am half way the trailer starts to be lowered on top of me. I try to shout but cannot. I get onto my hands and knees and the trailer still kept coming down. I am now lying on my stomach, convinced it is going to crush me. Then it suddenly stops a couple of inches from my head. I wake feeling terrible.

The dream is interesting, although the information it holds may at first not be obvious. But with a minimum of processing the dream information will become clear. The first technique of processing the dream is to recognise some of the key statements within it. These are I AM WALKING – I TRY TO SHOUT – CONVINCED IT IS GOING TO CRUSH ME.

The reason these are key statements is because the dreamer is saying ‘I am walking’ – ‘I try to shout’ – ‘I …am convinced’. The word ‘I’ is important.

This form of processing has not added anything to the dream. It has simply drawn attention to the information already there in the dreamer’s description of her experience – this is why it is useful to write the dream out fully. If we add a little more information which the dreamer herself connects with the dream, then it becomes even clearer. Mrs C. L. says, ‘I work for BOOTS the chemist. The employees at the shop I work in were told at the beginning of the year that Boots are selling our shop. When that happens I will be made redundant. We were supposed to finish on May 26th. It is now the end of July. The deal fell through so we are now just left hanging indefinitely until a new buyer comes along. I feel very unsettled as I can’t make any plans for the future.’

Having read these comments, it would be difficult not to see the dream as relating to the woman’s work situation, and to her strong anxiety connected with it. She herself says – through her dream – she is ‘convinced it – the situation – is going to crush’ her. She also feels her strong emotions about this – expressed in her attempt to shout – are not being expressed or ‘heard’. From just this one dream, we can be forgiven if we assume that dreams may express in dramatic form our feeling reaction to the circumstances of our everyday life. Taking this dream as information, Mrs. C. L. could see she is feeling crushed by the situation, yet not stating her feelings loudly enough to be heard. She might therefore speak to the manager to clarify the situation for herself.

Here is an even shorter and less complex dream. It has been left just as it was written so its information is immediately apparent. The key words here might be TRYING TO CONTACT HIM and NOT UNDERSTANDING WHY HE LEFT ME. The dream is from Mrs C. J.

Years ago I lost my first husband at twenty nine. I had the same dream continually of being in a phone box trying to contact him, not understanding why he had left me. He died of cancer. Later I remarried and this husband died of a heart attack. Once again the same dream came back so much.

On speculating about the dream from what is immediately apparent, we might say that although it is irrational to continually  try to contact her husband when there has never be any success, nevertheless, her desire to be with him continues year after year. This same part of her cannot understand why he died. We might put such feelings into words as, ‘But what had he done to die so young? Why should it happen to me twice?’ We can also assume that her desire to understand these questions, which is what contacting her husband represents, is expressed in the dream as the telephone.

The dream process has dramatised her situation and inner feelings – given them form and made them experiential. Looking at this dream helps us see how an image, such as the telephone, performs exactly the same sort of function as a spoken word, although in a different way. Namely, it represents feelings and thoughts. That the woman’s questions remain, that her problem is unsolved, is apparent from the fact she does NOT make contact on the telephone, and does not find peace. Understanding her dream shows her the importance of the questions she continually asks herself, and the need to release the emotions behind them. With this she could be free of the dream. If she cannot manage this by herself, taking advantage of the professional help of a therapist might help.

To make it clear how everything is a dream holds personal information, to give an example, I was recently asked by a man who had given no thought to dreams how on earth you could extract any meaning from them. He was wearing a fairly old T-shirt, so I said, “OK, let’s imagine you dreamt of your T-shirt, what would you make of that?”

After a while he said, “I don’t know that I would make anything of it.”

My response was to say, “Right, but now tell me where you bought the T-shirt, and what memories it has for you.” Whereupon he told me memories of being abroad, and that the shirt was part of those memories, and he wasn’t prepared to say what they were as they were so personal.

The important point is that everything we see and deal with, every person, every imagined scene, has such a background of feelings and perhaps memories. It is exactly this background of feelings and information that the dream weaves its story from. To understand it you need to become aware of the usually unconscious feeling responses you have in connection with every thing, place, person and animal you fill your dreams with.

For fuller Dream Processing – Below are described simple techniques that make it possible to quickly gain information from your dreams. They have been put as a series of questions. If you take time to consider and answer the question you will find your way into a new experience of dream understanding.

Read it in: Processing Your Dream  

Acting on your Dreams – Extracting more from your dream by letting your body and feelings express it can provide a remarkable release of insight. There are several ways of doing this.

Do see the instructions see: Acting on Your Dreams

The Peer Dream Group – This method is the most powerful and deepest method. It includes some of the other techniques mentioned.

The way of working known as the Peer Dream Group came about from our experience that dreams are largely self explanatory if approached in the right way. An exterior expert or authority is not necessary for a profound experience of and insight into dreams and into oneself if certain rules are respected and used. The dreamer is the ultimate expert on their own dream  and themselves but only when we break through to what is usually unconscious mental states, and when treated as such, and supported in their investigation of their dream drama, they can powerfully explore and manifest the resources of their inner life.

To use it see: The Peer Dream Group and What I Have Seen In Dreams

For the Dictionary put the word you want to look up in the search box at the top right of all pages 

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Armchair

Usually associated with rest or relaxation. A particular armchair might link with certain memories, such as courting or love-making. It might link with a person because of where a family member or friend sat. But any item or furniture can also associate with likes or dislikes, or a particular relationship or time of life.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What are my memories or associations with the armchair?

If I don’t not know this armchair, what do I feel about it in the dream?

What would I say is the function of an armchair, what is it for, and does that define it in the dream?

Use Talking As to define what the armchair means.

Armor Armour

The emotional and intellectual rigidity we use to protect ourselves from hurt. Can depict muscular tension which blocks free flowing sexuality and feelings; or our defence systems, such as frantically arguing for our beliefs, or killing out our feelings in a relationship; fear of getting hurt – but also ability to protect oneself from hurt or attack. So it can be the attitudes or feelings you use as a barrier to stop other people ‘getting through to you’, a hardness or rigidity of attitudes; defensive attitudes; self doubt; inner conflict.

If the armour is seen as defensive, it may point to deep anxieties in regard to what is suggested by the dream action – such as relationship, work, health.

Shining armour: Idealism; the strength of ones beliefs or resolve. In a woman’s dream, feelings of romance about finding a male who is strong enough to care and help her meet the difficulties of life.

Example: I was a soft crab, under a stone on the sea-shore. With infinite starvation, and struggling, and kicking, I had got rid of my armour, shield by shield, and joint by joint, and cowered naked and pitiable, in the dark, among dead shells and ooze. Suddenly the stone was turned up; and there was my cousin’s hated face laughing at me, and pointing me out to Lillian. She laughed too, as I looked up, sneaking, ashamed, and defenceless, and squared up at him with my soft useless claws. Charles Kingsley – from Alton Locke, 1850.

Kingsley’s description is a magnificent picture of the softness and vulnerability we use our ‘armour’ to defend against. But the next dream gives an entirely different use of armour. The dream shows how new life can arise out of the death of the old, and how failure can become victory when we find our golden armour arising from awareness of our core self beyond death.

While heavily pregnant 11 years ago I dreamt I and thousands of Japanese-like soldiers had been at war and lost. Our punishment was beheading. Not wanting to see my comrades killed I went to the front. I was dead, outside my body. Dressed in golden armour with a lion symbol. I told my comrades they outnumbered the enemy. They won and took my baby from my dead body. BMW. #

Here in the way of all Life, death is followed by new life.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What use is being made of the armour, and what do I gather from this about myself or my attitudes?

Am I using the armour as an intellectual or emotional barrier?

If I am wearing the armour how do I feel without it, and how does that reflect in my life?

Here are some ways to move beyond vulnerability – Methods of Awakening – Life’s Little Secrets – Facing Fear.

Also see Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming

Arms

(Such as weapons – See: Arm for body limb) Guns, spears, usually symbolise aggressiveness and destructive urges and wishes. Or male sexuality. If you are being attacked they depict your own fear of being hurt or dominated, either by your own emotions or those of someone else. See: weapons

Army

This suggests some form of conflict, internal or otherwise. The army might be depicting the forces or qualities you muster to deal with difficulties – i.e. courage, information; aggression or anger. They might be attitudes necessary to face anxieties such as determination or confidence in your core self.

The army is also an organisation and the dream might be about how you are relating to being organised, being told what to do, being under orders, or working within an organisation amongst many others. So it is important to recognise how you feel in the dream. Do you feel trapped, part of something, alone in a crowd, or a meaningful part of something bigger than you?

Sometimes army dreams occur when you are ready to confront the internal traumas and conflicts you carry. The important aspects of such dreams are about what they show of your attitudes or feelings about the army. But it is often necessary to read the entry on war, as the army dream might be mostly about the fighting. See: soldier; war.

Example: I had a series of dreams about being a soldier marching to the front with an army. Then came a day when I dreamt we were in the trenches waiting for the signal to go over the top. It came, I leapt up out of the trench and ran through the flying bullets to meet the foe.

The dreams came at a time when I was getting nearer facing internal traumas I had carried since childhood. After the last dream these broke through into waking life very dramatically, and I relived a tonsil operation experienced as a six year old. Anthony.

There is a great battle we are all part of, the battle to grow into the full beauty of women and men; the battle against the lies we live in; the battle to realise who we are.

This forgetfulness lies upon the world like a blanket of fog, a daytime night. We walk in it and call our darkness light. Believing in what we have as knowledge, we label the gleams of light reaching us, myth, legend, poetry, religion or mere nonsense. Yet the legend and dream persist in man’s awareness through all the changes of his so-called rational beliefs, his science, and his logic. Scientific attitudes constantly change, and with them the logic which depends on them, but fairy stories are as old as time. Or, to be more precise, the living experience in the story remains forever within us, though the outer details change. Thus the underlying essence of the stories of Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Baldur, Mithras, Osiris, and the others, are strangely alike. Echoes of our lost names, perhaps?

Ah yes, “We are shattered, tattered, demented remnants of a once glorious army. Among us are Princes and Captains of Armies, Lords of Battle, amnesic, aphasic, ataxic, jerkily trying to recall what was the battle the sounds of which still ring in our ears: is the battle still raging? If we could make our way back to join the main body of the army. Gropings, orientations, crumbs, fragments, bits of the jigsaw, a few demented ravings that may help the reconstruction of the lost message. I am just beginning to regain my memory, just beginning to realise I am lost, just getting faint sounds of old familiar music – snatches of old tunes, moments of deja-vu, a reawakening of a long-numbed agony – an unendurable realisation of what a debacle it was, what a shambles, what betrayal, horror, stupidity, ignorance, cowardice, craven lust, wretched greed. Faint recall of a raving nostalgia, for the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, Paradise lost.” (The Bird Of Paradise by R. D. Laing – Quoted from my book Yield.)

Useful Questions and Hints:

What are my feelings about the army, or being in the army?

Is this army fighting for something, if so, what? How does that link with myself?

Am I avoiding or being part of the group?

Here are some ways to meet the conflict you face – Methods of Awakening – Life’s Little Secrets – Facing Fear.

Arrangement

This is one of those difficult words because it can mean many things. It can be a flower arrangement, an arrangement of your living area or furniture, it can be an arrangement you make with someone, a marital arrangement, an arrangement of who has what, seating arrangements, or arrangements for a journey, arrangement for where you are going to be buried, old arrangements or new arrangements, and so on.

So it is necessary to see what the arrangement was in connection with. If it was in connection with furniture then look up furniture. If it was connected to someone else look up relationship – and so on.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Ask yourself if the arrangement was to your liking or not.

If not to your liking ask yourself why not.

Use Carry the Dream Forward to find satisfaction.

Arrested Arresting

It often suggests a restraint of your natural expression by moral judgements or questions of right and wrong. Depending upon the rest of the dream it can also depict restraint of your anger or sexuality, or other ‘unlawful’ feelings. Because such dreams often include the police it can be about feeling that circumstances or social pressures are holding you back; or that your development or growth is held back.

If you have difficult feelings about police or social authority, the dream could point to the way you restrain yourself due to those feelings. Such dreams are often experienced by people who have survived harsh political regimes and know the terror of being arrested. See: police

Arresting someone else suggest that you are trying to hold some part of you that you feel you must control – as example:

I am with some black kid/guy who probably won’t have a full life and I feel so sorry about that. So sorry. We are in a toy store and he is looking for toys – inspirational books/movies – a train set to take my/his mind off the sadness of it all. The black kid scares me because he is so wild, so out of control, so energetic, so untamed. I hold onto his hand. I have arrested him – for much of the dream. I have to threaten to shoot him to bring him under control.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What of my feelings or motivations does my dream suggest I am ‘arresting’?

If it is someone else being arrested, what do they depict of my own urges or traits?

Does my dream indicate I am feeling guilty about something – is so what?

Do past experiences with authority lie behind this dream?

Use Talking As to define what the dream means for you, or Processing Dreams.

Arrogant Arrogance

It seems from looking at the dreams where arrogance is mentioned it is usually because we fail to see who we really are and so act in a way to get ourselves in trouble. The following example shows this.

By the way, I ultimately said “no” to antidepressant drugs that were recommended to me. Are these drugs as disastrous as I think they are? It seems to me they are impeding the evolution of our race by keeping tens of millions mentally and emotionally “stuck”. Sure, they reduce the pain, but for most people, an absence of pain decreases the motivation to explore their inner selves and return with some jewels of discovery.

I am quite certain that I released my demons prematurely – before I had sufficiently developed my strengths and skills. This happened because I didn’t listen to my inner self’s messages. In my arrogance, I actually thought I knew better. This led to my depression and opened the gates to my inner demons. So…I am now forced to fight a premature battle. In such a case, is there any room for the argument that antidepressants can act as a crutch to help your mind heal? The argument is that you can later get off the drugs and be better prepared to take your inner journey. The logic makes some sense. But something inside me just doesn’t sit right with this position. Artificially tampering with brain chemistry seems dangerous under any circumstances.

Here is another example of losing sight of ones common humanity, a vital factor in dealing with life.

I was once extremely beautiful. The kind of beauty that we foolishly wish for and our society demands. I was married to a wonderful, wonderful man and we were profoundly happy. So much so that it made others jealous. He was murdered trying to protect me from someone close to us and I was raped and left to mourn him. My beauty had been my curse and the reason he was taken. Actually, it was my arrogance over my beauty that was my transgression. The pain is unimaginable – KNOWING that I caused this. The universe does not see time as we do and holds us accountable from one life to the next.

Useful Questions and Hints:

In what way was the arrogance shown and what its results?

Do I identify with the arrogance shown in the dream or disown it?

Can I place myself in the role and feel it? See Standing in Role.

Arrow

Something that has really got into us, like hurtful words or actions; or being pierced by a powerful emotion such as love. It could suggest the action of turning our feelings  inwards in a wounding way. Sometimes it means a message, perhaps of love or endeavour.

This is made clear in the following example.

As I looked at this beast I noticed that its eyes were being hurt. Arrows were being fired at its eyes, and javelins thrown. I wondered who could be doing this, and stepped forward to take out the javelins and the arrows.

I wondered what the arrows and javelins could be, and was it I throwing them, firing them? Gradually it clarified that we continually injure this wonderful process in us. Being aware is a special state that acts in all manner of ways for this great ancient being or process that is behind our existence. Consciousness is its eyes and ears, its fingers and mouth, its means of experience, and its way of learning. And whatever we feed back to that fundamental part of us is deeply felt. Perhaps this is not a very accurate description, but it is like a loving and willing dog that out of its instinctive being tries to do all that we ask of it, tries to grow, tries to learn. But it is so sensitive, so when we are angry with it, or frustrated, or direct criticism at it, it cowers, it feels failure, its exuberance diminishes. So also with this great wonderful beast within, this mysterious process of life that is at our core. It withdraws. But we can also call it out into further expression, enabling it to extend beyond its previous capabilities, by loving it, by acknowledging its wonder, by calling it forth.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Have I been pierced or pierced others with arrows?

What do I feel about the dream?

What is it like to be the dream arrow or arrows?

Try Talking As to find out.

Art Artist

The exteriorisation of some inner idea, feeling or direction. The expression of inner content, and thus a source of self realisation. The artist may represent the urge toward fruition, toward self-realisation. The art object however, can depict some meaningful realisation within yourself, that is as yet not clear enough to put into words. This may be because it is pre-verbal experience, or is still barely conscious.

The aspect of oneself that is in contact with the irrational, creative side of the unconscious. The desire or ability to be creative; the drive to express something of oneself, that may be repressed. Maybe the desire for public recognition – or a chance to demonstrate your skill or quality; the impractical aspect of self. For some the artist represents somebody who is impractical and out of touch with real work or life

Meeting an artist: Becoming aware of a creative idea or an aspect of self that is creative.

Watching an artist at work: Recognising artistic or creative ability, but being passive about it.

If you are an artist: This might well be showing you another facet of your artistry, or be exploring in a creative way, or looking at problems you have, depending on dream theme. See: Painting; art in dreams; archetype of artist.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this creative expression of an inner idea?

What is the theme involved?

What feelings do I express in the dream?

Try using Acting on your dream to define dream meaning

What is the artist doing in my dream, and what might that represent in my life?

What is my relationship with the artist and what can I understand from that? See key words for help with this.

If I imagine myself as the artist what do I feel? For help doing this see Stand in Role under peerdream work.

Art gallery

The gallery suggests your experience of dreaming or creative imagination and self-expression. It shows the results of your creativity, your innate skill as an artist of your own live and love.

A gallery is also usually a public place, and so would suggest your interaction with others, perhaps involving acclaim or criticism.

Useful hints and questions:

What is displayed in the gallery, and in what way does it comment on me?

Do I recognise the art as my own, or am I seeing it as someone else’s?

What is the theme of the art, and is that an insight into my own passionate direction?

Artery

The flow of life giving process in you. It could indicate what you are seeing or realising about the process of life and how it upholds your existence without you being aware of it.

An artery also can indicate vulnerability, because if it is injured you may die. So the dream might be pointing to such a vulnerability that could lead to your feeling hopeless and without purpose.

An artery to the head in a dream needs careful consideration. It could if it shows blockage be a warning of stroke.

If the artery is bleeding it suggests a situation that needs urgent attention. This is not usually physical, but about emotional traumas that drain your motivation, joy of life and sense of purpose.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I aware of that is life giving and how can I care for it?

If my dream shows injury, what in me depletes my energy to live and thrive?

What in waking life brings these feelings that I meet in the dream?

See Acting on your dream also Easy Dream Interpretation

Ascending Ascent

Whether the ascending is in a lift, flying or climbing a hill, it can link to the rising feelings of passion or sexual pleasure, or the transition from expressing energy genitally to expressing it in self awareness. Such a shift from a lower mood or sensation to one felt as exhilarating or lighter is often shown as ascending.

In many past cultural traditions ascent was associated with purification or refinement – as in the ascent to heaven, or a holy mountain. It also suggested becoming more detached, or finding a different perspective. We could see it also as evolution of ourselves to a newer level. Because we often move to a wider view of things, becoming more aware of our situation or surroundings as we get higher, ascending is often linked with change, and perhaps leaving things behind, the dropping away of what occupied you below. It can also be an attempt to remove yourself from the difficulties or experiences of the world – there may be a link with losing touch with reality. See Altered States of Consciousness.

Example: I was dreaming that I was walking around a small cul-de-sac early in the morning. I came up to a group of old women dressed in black huddled around a pentagram chanting something. I was terrified of them. For some reason I thought they were witches so I turned to run away. That is when they saw me and they started chasing after me. I started running but I wasn’t fast enough. They were right behind me. Than right before they were about to grab me I shot up into the air. Shortly after I was flying; it felt so freeing. Than for some reason I started trying to find god. I was shouting out for him and calling his name.  As I was calling out to him I saw a giant face in the clouds. It felt really powerful. It was a perfect face and I thought my call had been answered. – In the example the dreamer ascend to escape from terror.

The term ‘upwardly mobile also links ascent with success or a change toward greater fortune; moving toward achievement.

In some dreams or out of body experiences, the clear awareness of OBE is sometimes preceded by a feeling of rapidly moving upward. In such cases there is a sort of awakening, and ascending may in fact be an expression of nearing wakefulness. So ascending would be a move to waking, and descending moving toward deeper sleep or knowing the unconscious.

Jung points out that the theme of ascent is part of many ancient religious rituals and beliefs. In most cases the ascent is, like the rising sun during the day or the summer, linked completely with the descent in the evening, night, or winter. Ascent is therefore part of a spiral which also descends, the cycle of birth, death, rebirth. Christianity tends to speak of a one time resurrection however, whereas the ancient belies saw it as a continuing cycle. See: flying; up-upper.

Example: Genesis 028:010 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.

Ascending a hill or mountain or tree: Often shows having a more inclusive view or understanding of one’s activities and place in the scheme of things. It also signifies purification or personal evolution. Ascent of a hill often appears in dreams of people in or approaching middle age, and depicts their life so far as an ascent. Usually there is a descent following. See: hill.

Ascending into the sky: Upliftment in some form; attaining a wider view of ones life situation – where you are in life; death, as in ascending into heaven. It appears in some dreams showing a change in them leading to a wonderful talent or opportunity. It can occasionally depict a manic state where the person cannot get back down so is a way to escape from everyday life by taking on a more ‘spiritual’ attitude, but often it is so unbalanced it leads to no real satisfaction.

Climbing stairs, going up in an elevator or lift: Movement toward waking or becoming more aware; the mental; or an escape from anxiety or being ‘down to earth’; sexual pleasure, or mounting feelings of love and attraction. It can also indicate going up in the world, so may link with ambition or achievement. Overcoming difficulties such as anxiety to reach a goal; in some stair dreams there is a tremendous amount of anxiety and feeling of insecurity. This may link with the babyhood fear of falling down stairs, and not yet having the skill to deal with stairs easily. See: example in lift under house and buildings.

If the lift goes out the top of the roof, or the connection with base is missing: Can show a critical situation of the mind being split from body awareness; schizoid or manic.

Watching something ascend – such as an object – or something emerging from the sea: Something you are becoming more conscious of; something emerging from unconsciousness.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I feeling as I ascend, and where does that feeling appear in my waking life?

Is there a particular situation or difficulty I am moving away from, and is that in my life also?

What method or attitude am I using to ascend? Is it will power or some other influence?

Read Processing Dreams to help define the dream meaning.

Ascetic

Restraint of physical desires, usually in an attempt to realise inner self, but often from inner personal conflicts with such things as sexual urges or anxieties.

Conflict with natural drives; desire to be less dominated by same, so may lead to avoidance of sex. I could also be an attempt to find the spiritual, or it could be an inverted fear of one’s unconscious or a bid for power to control. Preventing one natural urges is also a way to the development of will. See archetype of the ascetic; religion and dreams.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Are there any fears or difficult feelings connected with sex or eating?

What attracts you or repels you in regard to asceticism?

Do you see it as a way to spiritual advancement – or an escape from things?

Try exploring your dream to deepen your understanding of it by using Processing Dreams.

Ash Ashes

What remains in your experience, perhaps as memory or wisdom, after the event or person has gone. Purification. Something that once moved you or troubled you, but the feelings have burnt themselves out; death or fear of it. Ashes also fertilise after a period of decay, death or destruction. Something that is empty of life; or an endeavour, relationship or dream that nothing came of it or that has ended.

Ash filled air: Enormous changes going on; great emotion, or emotion filled events, creating confusion and perhaps danger.

Ashes of someone or something: Something or someone that existed in your life and were a living part of it, but have now gone. Perhaps feelings have burnt out and left only a shadow, ashes of what existed before. The ashes in the case of cremation suggest the loss of the physical body, and what is now living is the influence of that person still existing in your life.

Ashtray: The way you get rid of old feelings, habits, memories; collection of past burnt out feelings or results of relationships; connection with smoking habit.

Cigarette ash: Connection with smoking; old feelings or anxieties.

If connected to cricket: Victory – or defeat if losing them.

Idioms: Rake over the ashes; reduced to ash; ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is it that is now ashes, and how does that link with what has gone from your life?

With what feelings are you relating to the ashes?

Is there something that has been burnt out of your feelings or purified?

Try using Acting on your dream.

Ash Tree

Because if its fantastic power of growth and survival it often represent your own personal growth and ability to survive and thrive despite attacks. It has been linked in past ages with protection of children.

Ash staffs have been used as a protection, also as a magic wand to ward off evil.

See: tree.

Ashram

Dreaming of an ashram usually means you are on a quest for your core self. You may receive important instructions or lessons from your own highest level – usually shown as a wise being or guru.

We are all dual beings. The one side of us we know as our conscious self, living in the waking world. That side is only a tiny and usually cut of self. We have another side of us that most people are unconscious of and is best thought of as a massive and integrated consciousness of everything and everybody.

Example: I woke early his morning to pee. As I woke I was aware of having been dreaming, but I could not remember what the dream was. However, I was experiencing a strong feeling of being connected with all things. I had a deep sense of being part of everything, and of everything being a part of me. It was very real and I had a spontaneous image of standing in a great garden, an immense place of creation and unity – the Garden of Eden feeling. As this happened I had an insight that most of the people in the world do not have, and perhaps do not want to be a part of this unity. This thought, in the way it was experienced was completely new to me. I couldn’t understand why anyone would not want to experience this wonder and communion. I knew I was at the wedding feast, the celebration of life or creation. It was a wonderful feeling to be a part of this mystery.

Therefore the realisation that many people did not want this was slightly shocking or unnerving. It made me ask myself the question of whether I was naive, perhaps not seeing or realising something. This realisation went on to the sense that in fact a sort of battle was going on between those who were part of the celebration, and those who didn’t want it. I thought that those who didn’t want it were perhaps frightened of losing the control they thought they had over their life and the world. I knew I was playing a part in this battle or struggle.

Example: A man – Jesse Watkins – stressed out of his normal awareness said – ““I was more than I had ever imagined myself. Not only was I living my life now, but I had existed from the very beginning of time, from the lowest form of life up to the present. The real me was all that experience. Then at times I could see ahead beyond even the awareness I now had, to where we become aware of it all.” Jesse felt that the new ‘world’  he was experiencing was something humans were moving toward, but most people couldn’t reach at the moment. In that world were beings Jesse called gods, beings who could live and move in that world easily, beings who were not afraid of the enormity of the experience. From this he felt that all the things that happen to us in our life are helping us evolve toward becoming like the gods Jesse met.

In the ashram you are part of the journey into the wider life. There are stages of the journey which are marked by initiations – a powerful l experience that allows you entrance to a new level of sharing the ALL.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What did you experience in connection with the ashram?

Was it difficult to get into the ashram?

Did you learn anything there?

In what way did you learn?

Try using Talking As – Processing Dreams

Asian

See China; India; Japan.

Ass

The basic life processes in the body, which uphold or carry us through the years; the plodding long suffering body; foolishness, a sort of living on whims and fancies, or being used and abused by others. Also a foolishness or stupidity arising from a limited view of things; in the bible the ass carries the Christ, and so represents the unconscious automatic functions of the body which can support the wider awareness. In some dreams it represents stubbornness arising perhaps out of long entrenched habits and automatic behaviour, but also out of the hungers and needs of the body. This aspect of the ass also represents humility and patience along with common or everyday life.

If the ass or donkey is being ridden by or pulling someone else: You may be feeling you are doing all the hard work in a relationship, or working like a beast of burden.

Riding a donkey or ass: This may represent humility or feeling in a lowly position. But may simply relate to your relationship with your body’s needs and responses. See Ass/Donkey.

Useful Questions and Hints:

If you consider that your relationship with the ass might indicate how you are dealing with your body, what does it suggest?

Are you feeling put upon by the needs or demands of others?

Is somebody trying to make you go in a direction you do not want to?

Are you being a donkey or an ass – i.e. a bit dense or silly?

Try being in the role of the donkey or ass and see what you find – Being the Person or Thing.

Ass Or Donkey

The basic life processes in the body, which uphold or carry us through the years; the plodding long suffering body. Foolishness, a sort of living on whims and fancies, or being used and abused by others. Also a foolishness or stupidity arising from a limited view of things. In the bible the ass carries the Christ, and so represents the unconscious automatic functions of the body which can support the wider awareness.

The donkey can indicate stubbornness arising perhaps out of long entrenched habits and automatic behaviour, but also out of the hungers and needs of the body. This aspect of the ass also represents humility and patience along with common or everyday life.

If the ass or donkey is being ridden by or pulling someone else: You may be feeling you are doing all the hard work in a relationship, or working like a beast of burden.

Riding a donkey or ass: This may represent humility or feeling in a lowly position. But may simply relate to your relationship with your body’s needs and responses.

Example: It seemed to me that there were two children, perhaps adolescents, driving or leading a donkey or ass in perhaps a not very friendly or constructive way. Then a man appeared on the scene and knelt down beside the animal which seemed to be lying inert on the ground. He seemed to be explaining to the children that the best way to help the animal was to see it in its true form and release it from its outer coverings. As he was explaining this he began undoing a zip along the length of the animal’s spine and peeled off what I could now see, was a kind of perfect fitting cloth suit, he repeated this action again, removing yet another suit and I am not sure whether he did so a third time, or how many times but eventually I saw the rich, shiny, chestnut coloured coat of a healthy animal. I am not sure at this point whether the animal was now a horse, it looked like a new born but not like a donkey so I think it may have been a horse. It then seemed that some kind of order had been restored, there now appeared a kind of arena and people were filling the seats to watch some kind of a play, As I watched the seats filling I realized there was not one for me and again I was standing in the sidelines, a watcher.

Idioms: donkey work;

Useful Questions and Hints:

If you consider that your relationship with the ass might indicate how you are dealing with your body, what does it suggest?

Are you feeling put upon by the needs or demands of others?

Is somebody trying to make you go in a direction you do not want to?

Are you being a donkey or an ass – i.e. a bit dense or silly?

See Inner World – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Your Core Self

Assailant

See attack attacker.

Assassin

This might link with hidden desires in you to kill certain parts of yourself. For instance sometimes a person destroys their own best interests or creations. The assassin might also show the feelings you hide about someone else or their achievements. See murder.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is my dream showing that the assassin is aiming to kill, and what does this point to in my waking life?

Am I surreptitiously undermining my own or someone else’s activities?

Have I killed out some aspect of my own feelings, love or creativity?

Try using Talking As to understand your dream.

Assault

See attack attacker.

Assistant

See: Helper.

Asteroid

Is a rock that usually stays in space, quite different to a meteor or shooting star.

To dream of it might suggest that some part of you is suspended and unable to act. But your associations with would need to explored as this is unusual to find in dreams. So see Acting on your dream.

It represents something from the mysterious cosmos entering our experience, so can represent awareness or recognition of something beyond our present experience showing itself to us. It begs the questions, where did it originate; what different world of experience does it represent, and how and why did it enter my life? Well it usually is from your core self. So can indicate an expansion of you awareness. See

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is happening to the asteroid in your dream? See Processing Dreams to clarify this.

Do you feel threatened by the asteroid? If so see Facing Fear.

Is it something uplifting?

Try using Talking As.

Asthma

If you suffer asthma then the dream will probably be illustrating something about the physical or psychological cause of your condition. Otherwise it probably depicts feelings to do with struggling to survive, or being smothered in a relationship or situation, or maybe some form of anxiety.

This dream experience can arise from powerful fear or anxiety and not due to any physical problems. A response to anxiety is sometimes that of holding the breath, but it can also cause difficulty in breathing. See the Example under Nightmares.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I experiencing heightened stress or fear about something?

Am I meeting a fear of death or illness that I am not really allowing to be felt or expressed?

If I imagine myself struggling for breath what emerges; what am I seeking or facing?

Try using Stand in role to clarify the feelings.

Astral

BODY

See: astral body.

Astrologer Astrology

The dream astrologer often represents your intuition or unconscious insights into yourself and others. There may also be a link with a sense of destiny or direction. But perhaps you associate astrology with hocus pocus, in which case your dream might be suggesting you are being misled.

To see, be, or have connections with an astrologer in your dream suggests you are in touch with your intuition, and may be having thoughts or concerns about your future. It can also indicate intuitions concerning your innate abilities or qualities, and where they might lead.

Astrology is a modern version of an ancient realisation about forces of cosmic origin that shape and influence our lives. Unfortunately most of ancient vision has been lost. But any mention of astrology in your dream may suggest that you are now receiving the cosmic impulses in your creative activities, which will lead your life to a fuller expression of your potential.

The more deeply those heavenly signs and their traditional significance’s are studied, the more impossible it appears to consider them as a human invention. In the first place they are more ancient than the earliest records of human history; they can be traced in the earliest dawn of civilisation. The most ancient legends of all peoples are based on them.

Everywhere throughout the world the “Signs,” their symbols, and significance are found practically identical. There are some slight modifications of the symbols to adapt them to local conditions; for instance, the “Bull” becomes an “Elephant” in India; the “Crab” is sometimes a “Tortoise,” in Egypt it was sometimes replaced by the scara­beus, but it remained a “Crab” in the planispheres of the great temples of Egypt at Denderah and Esme; the meanings of the signs were unchanged. The only change of any importance that ever appears to have been made was the substitution of the “Scorpion” for the “Eagle,” and that corresponded with one of the most important facts in the whole story of humanity, which can be more appropriately referred to later.

(During the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt, Vivant Denon drew the circular zodiac, the more widely known one, and the rectangular zodiacs. In 1802, after the Napoleonic expedition, Denon published engravings of the temple ceiling in Denderah in his Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte.^[5] These elicited a controversy as to the age of the zodiac representation, ranging from tens of thousands to a thousand years to a few hundred, and whether the zodiac was a planisphere or an astrological chart.)

How can we account for these signs and their traditional meanings. There is no conceivable way in which men in the earliest stages of civilisation could have obtained them from observation and experience. Uninterrupted observations over a complete Precessional Cycle, even if possible, would have been insufficient. And what could lead any primitive race of men even to imagine the possibility of any connection between the stars and their lives and destinies? Given the Zodiacal conception, its significance, and the key to “planetary” workings, by some form of “Revelation,” they would of course be able to observe its influences at work in human – and cosmic – affairs, but no human beings could ever have “invented” it. The only explanation of its origin which appears to be possible is that it was “revealed” to men in just exactly the same way as “prophecies” and all other spiritual mysteries, through the perceptive faculty of the unconscious mind at the period of its most complete activity.

 Example: I dreamt my uncle Tony came to me. He asked where the toilet was and I described it. I discovered the sink was overflowing with water. P had left a tap running. When I looked however, the sink was within another sink, thus the floor was not wet. I believe I turned the taps off though.

My uncle talked to me. I noticed he had a wig on, it was also dyed black. He told me, or I knew that a group of businessmen wanted me to talk about astrology. At first I was merely going to give an “off-the-cuff” talk. Later however I began to want to really throw all I had into the talk, both off-the-cuff, and well researched talk.

The dreamer attempted to use intuition to understand the dream by exploring it intuitively not interpreting it intellectually by thinking about or looking up symbols: “The dream brings to your life the present possibilities. Bringing the possibilities to light. There was the time when you were never certain what to do with your life. Life brought pain. When this dream was lived, you were lost within yourself. The dream brought love into your life.

The first part of the dream lifts you from the recent darkness. When your uncle Tony arrives, this represents the coming from within yourself of those possibilities lost when you lost your way three years ago. You lost it them because you tried the path which left the world. There was lost the path your soul came to fulfill. You resisted the urge to teach the word. The word was lost within you. The word was my life calling you. When you resisted the call you decided to leave the world by trying to live the spiritual life. When you (recently) released love on this decision you received the power to speak the word.

The word will live within you. The life you will now live will be the word living in you. The way you live will let my world bring your world my light. The dream promises that you will bring the Star Light to many. The dream promises that you will lift many by telling them the wisdom you received from my word. The dream brings you my world.

There was, last night, the lifting of the mind. There will follow from this the possibility of lifting the mind in others. The dream was lived because you were receiving the power to speak from the word. The part where the water overflows means that the life force now flows freely. Nothing is hurt when it flows over. The present life will allow it to express without harm. It can be turned off or on as wished. The life force flows between the two sinks because they represent the two levels of physical existence, the outer and the inner. See Q’s Big Question

The child – P – represents your present love, longing, and my life within you. The toilet is the creative self now clearing problems by flushing them away which were frustrating it. The wig is the false thinking, the unconscious false thoughts, still prevalent and to be dealt with.

When your uncle brings up the subject of astrology, this means that you are now receiving the cosmic impulses in your creative activities, which will lead you in your life activities. The part where you – plan to – speak to the group, brings your life work before you. When you decide to make this work expression of your thoroughness, then you bring to the cosmic impulses your own gift of self expression”. See Star Beings

Useful Questions and Hints:

Does the astrologer give any information about your character or future – if so can you say what it is?

Do I have particular concerns about my future – if so what are they?

Did I seek help from the astrologer – if not why not? He or she represents your intuition and might hold important and useful insights.

See Using Your Intuition – Summing Up – Being the Person or Thing – Edgar Cayce

Astronaut

This points to attitudes or feelings, perhaps even ideas, that can take you beyond the ordinary view you have of life and yourself. There is also a suggestion you are feeling the courage to grow and explore what you cannot yet define. See: Space.

This might link with efforts you are making in meditation or exploring your inner world of experiences beyond your body senses. Sometimes it reflects states of mind in which you split off from your body, perhaps in an attempt to run away from or avoid direct life experience.

Useful questions are:

What is it the astronaut or I am doing in this dream, and how might that relate to my waking activities?

Am I learning anything from the astronaut?

If I stand in the role of the astronaut what is my view of life and the world?

Ate

See eating

Atheist

Dreaming of an atheist or being one oneself may simple be that one does not agree with what the organised church teaches, or because the person does not believe in God.

But being an atheist is a form of blindness. The reason is that they are missing seeing what the roots of religion are. The roots are not about worshipping an external and all powerful deity. There is a much more direct and personal reason.

Take for instance your own existence and your origins and continued existence. Can you see that you are a life form that connects with the Earth? Can you also see that as such you would not exist without the existence of the universe? Astronomers are searching for life on other planets because it is so rare and extraordinary. Yet you are a life form that is the survivor of life from the very beginnings of simple life on this planet. You are extraordinary too, yet you probably have no idea of how you work because it is mostly unconscious. Maybe you have read about the body, but that is not the same as honouring and working with the life process that keeps you alive. Can you honestly say, “What the hell am I?” and listen and learn. For you are really what religion is about. You are the great mystery.

I witnessed an atheist talking to a woman he was confronting, “Religion;” he said, “that’s surely a direction for failures and people who can’t really cope with facing reality.”

And the woman he was accusing of this inability to face reality said, “You poor man! Is your mind or awareness so tiny that you have never realised the forces and processes of your own body are beyond anything you understand? Can’t you see that your very existence is brought about by things so far beyond your knowledge that it is only a statement of your impoverishment to suggest an awareness of God is an expression of some sort of smallness and failure. Have you never understood that? Have you not seen that religion is not only an acknowledgement of what we fail to understand and yet depend upon, but it is also an opening to it, a willingness to relate to it? It can also be something far more even than that. It can be an active loving relationship with what gives you life. And such love is an exchange, a sharing, and a way of merging one with another. It is an exchange – a sharing of bodily fluids – the very substance of life. Imagine that; a glorious love affair with the very spirit of life! A love affair with the invisible and forever indefinable. Is that something you are afraid of?”

Athlete

This is not about whether you are athletic in an external sense, but about the dedication, the strength or drive to succeed you can tap into in your everyday, or working life and your personal urge to change. A handicapped person who challenges themselves to positively meet life with a smile and vigour is as much tapping into the athlete power as an Olympic winner. This also connects with people who change the health and state of their body through continued exercise and good living.

The negative side of this is the attitude that leads a person to use their strength of body or purpose to bully, threaten or injure others. It may manifest as a form of showing off how strong, powerful or sexual you are – or at least posing as such. See Archetype of the Athlete.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Does this influence enter my life in a strengthening way or as an urge to dominate or impress others?

If the athlete is acting positively in me, what particular qualities is it bringing to me and how can I enhance or continue to develop them?

It can help understanding if you get into role as the athlete.

Atlantis

Atlantis is no longer either a fact or fiction. It has become something greater than both-a hope in the human heart! It has become a symbol, a quest, the lost continent of oneself. It is all the submerged continent of our Eternal Nature, our hidden but imperishable self. We long once more for the Garden of Eden, and mankind’s original spiritual home, where he lived at peace with our self and our surroundings, and at one with both.

In this particular sense, it matters not whether Atlantis exists as a material fact. There are signs of it here and there if we look about. Like the outer signs we see of our own spiritual nature, they are- tantalising signs promising so much more than they actually tell. They point our attention down under the waters, into the deeps of ourself, and leave us wondering how we may get beneath the surface to actually see for ourselves. Not just to guess, to feel sure because of the signs, but to know through direct contact. But your dream may give you clues how to find it.

Another recent prophet, Edgar Cayce, states the same thing -that Atlantis will rise, and the Great Temple of Poseidia will be seen again. To quote a statement he made in deep trance like sleep, “Poseidia will be among the first portions of Atlantis to rise again. Expect it in ’68 and ’69. This was said in 1940. This hasn’t happened in our outer live, but it has certainly happened in our inner world.

Atom Bomb

This can indicate anxiety regarding the external world, political forces etc, that the dreamer feels at the mercy of. Usually this about fears for the future and what might develop in the external world through the immense forces of politics and national conflict. It is often coupled with the dreamer’s survival strategies. In this way the dreamer might be trying out in the dream things he or she might do in such a situation.

The atom bomb or dreaming of a mushroom cloud can also depict the end of a particular world or way of life for the dreamer; i.e. the end of school life; divorce; loss of spouse; tremendous potential energy, but related to in a way that threatens the dreamer, and is therefore not harnessed. In other words the dreamer is relating to the change as a cataclysmic and destructive one.

It can also suggest fear of the irrational forces of life and the unconscious which may destroy all we have built in our conscious self. See: end of world dreams; anxiety; bomb; explosion.

Useful Questions and Hints:

How am I reacting to the bomb, and is this of any help – if not what might I do, considering this is a dream and I am dealing with my own feelings or anxieties?

Am I facing a massive or explosive change in my life – if so what is it?

Do I suspect that a situation is developing that might explode in a destructive way?

See Processing Dreams – Being the Person or Thing – Summing Up

Attack Attacked Attacker

In looking at many dreams in which attack takes place, it is obvious that there are many degrees and forms of attack. So attack or being attacked can represent many things such as feeling attacked or threatened by ones own impulses such as anger or sexuality; feeling surreptitiously attacked by other people and their attitude to you or their remarks; a subtle sense of being attacked by age, or a serious attack by an illness – one speaks of an asthma or virus attack for instance, but also one may be attacked by a poison, or food if one is allergic to it; one might personally attack an issue or a project, and so a dream might depict one attacking something in this sense; confidence may be attacked; it is a common term in sport or business, and so may refer to attitude or energy. This aspect of attack may also refer to ones beliefs, or to other peoples, which may be attacked and threatened; attack is also sometimes a form of defence, so may suggest defensiveness about some issue or aspect of ones life. A positive side to attack is that we often feel attacked by an emerging new insight or positive personal change. We feel it as an attack because it threatens our old way of life, our habitual way of ding things and thinking about things.

It is important to define or be aware of ones response to threat or attack in a dream. Experiments in connection with dreams in which the person runs away from attack, or is very passive, show that if the dreamer visualises changing the situation and faces attackers, their dreams and even waking behaviour changes radically. Passivity in dream situations may depict the innate feeling that we are helpless in dealing with the feelings involved. This usually dates from past experience, perhaps in childhood, where in fact one did not have the strength or maturity to meet what was happening. See Life Changes.

Occasionally attack in dreams shows a desire to be attacked in order to live out forms of self punishment or sadism. In most such cases this desire arises out of a need to remember, and make fully conscious, punishment or sadism that has been practised on the dreamer.

Being attacked: This dream usually arises because in some way you are repressing, in conflict with, or frightened off your own emotions, sexuality or anger. Occasionally the fear is about ones own potential or expanded awareness.

Attacked by animal: Feeling under threat from external events or internal emotions, impulses or ideas; feeling a victim in relationship to others and self; taking a defensive attitude. The repression or fear here is in regard to your own natural urges. Sometimes our dreams put into animal form someone who we feel is expressing anger toward us.

Attacked by shadowy or frightening figure: Our childhood traumas and fears may take this guise in a dream. So in this case the attack is depicting our feelings of fear and pain surrounding those past issues. How we meet such an attack is important. If we run from it, the trauma may remain largely unconscious, and therefore capable of influencing our behaviour negatively. Better to explore it or change it. (For help doing this see Stand in Role under peerdream work.)

Attacked by animal: Introverting one’s own aggression or sexuality; fear of one’s own natural urges; anxiety about aggression in oneself or other people; feeling attacked by an external person.

Being the attacker: This is more positive, as you are not being passive and hurt in your dreams. But you are still in conflict with whatever it is your attacking. Considering that what you attack is probably a part of your own personality, it might be better to meet it in some way. Positive self expression; defending oneself against something one feels threatened by; attempt to destroy some urge or feeling in oneself or others. The word attack is also used in many ways, so might refer to an ‘attack’ of an illness, or ‘heart attack’. Can express the difference between feeling threatened by a work/relationship/sex problem, or feeling challenged by it in a way to stimulate creativity or research.

Bird attacking: Fear of ideas, ideals or opinions; verbal attack by others; fear of the Self – a view of things that may destroy ones present more limited views or opinions.

Sexual attack: This has many aspects, and can at times be a re-playing of previous sexual attacks, or an expression of fear concerning them. But we also create dreams of sexual attack when we are frightened of our own feelings and desires. Grof gives the interesting account of a woman who experienced many images of sexual attack. He says:-

…. whenever a boy friend initiated even the most innocent sexual approach, such as touching. embracing, or kissing, she was overwhelmed with terror. It seemed to her that when such a situation occurred, her lover was actually changing physically and assuming animal features. Repeatedly, she fled from these situations in a state of panic anxiety and never wanted to see her partner again. Episodes of this kind were repeatedly relived …. with details of the physical setting, as well as the physical sensations and emotions involved. From Realms of The Human Unconscious, by S. Grof. Published by Souvenir Press.

Someone else being attacked: Anger or aggression toward another; killing off an aspect of oneself represented by the person in the dream. If the person is someone you are in relationship with, it suggests an attempt, however short, to distance oneself from them emotionally. See: fight; War.

Example: I had this dream at a time when there was a lot of talk and anxiety in newspapers and on television about nuclear war. In the dream a nuclear attack had been announced. I immediately thought of my children who are away in boarding school. I go out into the street to see if I can get to them, but realise it is hopeless. In the street everybody is walking about as if it were a holiday Sunday. I realised there was no time to get to my children so decided to join the people on the street. John C.

John had this dream at a time when there was a lot of media coverage about nuclear attack. It is therefore most likely dealing with his real fears about how he would deal with such an attack if it happened.

Example: Whilst suffering from nervous exhaustion three years ago. I had a recurring nightmare that left me feeling totally worthless and wretched. In it I underwent an indecent attack upon my person by my father. I was about four or five in the dream. It was not the attack in itself that left me with these feelings, but rather the look my mother gave me shortly afterwards – making me feel like a specimen in a jar. In the dream I sensed she had refused to be his wife fully, until he had got us into our own home again. I sense she is blaming me for not being able to continue with this threat, and that once more she will have to suffer my father’s attentions because of me. There is no one to help me so I decide to leave. I pack a small case, which I believe someone gets for me. In reality I did try to leave home at this age but got no further than the bus stop across the road. Maria.

Maria gives no indication of whether she was abused by her father, but the dream is certainly dealing with the sexual politics of her parents.

Example: Several men attacked me and were trying to drag me off somewhere against my will. As the dream progressed, or replayed, I began to realise that it only appeared like an attack because I was resisting the process. In fact the men wanted to show me something that was important to me. They were being quite gentle, but because of my resistance, it felt to me like an aggressive act. My thoughts about this are that this may represent the way I feel about events. Because of underlying anxiety, I feel events and changes, such as losing my job are very threatening and difficult to bear. In fact no harm has come from these events at all. The dream suggests that I am being led somewhere if only I would go along with things. Albie R.

Sometimes it is our response to the action that makes it appear like an attack. So it is worthwhile entering the dream again in imagination and exploring it – try Acting on your dream.

Useful Questions and Hints:

If I take the images away what are my feelings about the attack, and where am I meeting those feelings?

Is there any way I can change this dream? For help doing this see Carrying the Dream Forward.

What are the underlying issues here?

Attend

Usually shows some form of involvement in the feelings engendered by what is being attended. If it is a lecture or school, it would suggest interest in or need to attend to serious studies or thought. If it is a wedding then there is some link with relationship. Therefore consider what it might suggest or look up what was attended.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I feeling about this?

Are there things I need to attend to, and what does the dream suggest they are?

What is my attitude about what is happening, and how does that relate to my life?

Your body can often be a way to understand your dreams. See Using the Body.

Attic

The mind, ideas, memories, past experience; things that are out of sight or forgotten. It suggests things that are out of sight or forgotten but not really unconscious – the sort of thing you knew in the past but have forgotten or not recalled for a long time. Or a person that you have not recognised.

The attic is often a place of exploration, and sometimes a great deal of sexual feeling is hidden in it. Sometimes if you are high up and have a great view it can represent your ability to have a much wider view of life – like cosmic consciousness.

Also in some dreams it is a very frightening experience where we meet those things we would rather not see or remember.

Example: I was sleeping in an attic. A large dog was with me – a wolfhound like I used to exercise a few years ago. I and the dog would go out together. The dog was wild and free. I enjoyed being with it. together we did things like hunting which felt very real in the sense of not being artificial behaviour. Although I never washed I felt clean and healthy. Leon.

When Leon explored his dream he felt the attic was a place where he could exist but not be involved with people. The attic reminded him of the attic in a childhood house, where his mother never went because of the steep ladder. So he could go there and be alone, free of other people’s presence and influence.

Example: Then I was walking up the several flights of stairs to get to the attic room. I was holding a small dog in my arms – one of those rather flat nosed toy dogs. I arrived at the attic I put the dog down. But now the attic was empty and dark. I could feel my hair stand on end and my skin ‘crawling’. Actually I feel it all again as I write this. The feeling arose because there was an unformed dark shape creeping around at the far end of the room. The dog was really afraid and came into my arms. Then the dark creature leapt at me, transforming into a massive mouth with huge fangs and awful demonic face. Immediately I leapt at it in the same way and smashed against its face with my own huge fangs. This utterly disarmed it because it had felt, in its primitive way, to terrify me. It surprised me too that I could so immediately transform into a monster when necessary.

Then I approached the dark form, back in its original condition, trying to find out what it was and why I had met it in that way. Gradually I experienced its situation. It had originally been a human being, but had gradually lost its humanness and become this slinking darkness. I was slowly able to help it realise that it could once more take the path to become human if it wanted to. Then it asked me how that could be done. I told it that first of all it had to come out of this dark and empty place to mix with people. The human environment created a different surrounding and influence that would penetrate it and help it to change. It also asked me how I knew about its condition and how I could transform into its own monstrous form. I told it I had once experienced that condition, and that’s how I knew it was possible to come out of it. In fact it was a reflection and dramatisation of an aspect myself

If trapped in an attic: a purely intellectual approach to life. Finding an attic: pleasure at new ideas, discovering potential or wisdom from past experience, or you are dealing with things you previously thought were not important in your everyday life, or are caught up in things from the past, or in isolating yourself from ordinary life

Finding an attic: Discovering memories from the past, or a new space of the mind, perhaps a way of getting away from daily cares. Pleasure at new ideas, discovering potential or wisdom from past experience, or you are dealing with things you previously thought were not important in your everyday life.

Threat from attic: Disturbing thoughts, or something connected with what you have hidden or forgotten.

Hiding in attic: Escape from other people; retreat from everyday life. See example below.

Window or turret looking out from attic: Our sense of connection with the cosmos; wider awareness in which we understand an enormous amount about the world and ourselves we never realised before.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What did I find or experience in the attic?

What am I rediscovering from the past?

Are there influences from my parents or past family I am noticing in myself?

Do I feel a need for privacy or to get away from people?

What was I doing there?

What memories of attics come to mind?

Try Being the Person or Thing – Conditioned Reflexes – The House in Your Dream

Attitude

See: emotions.

Attraction

See: emotions and mood.

Auction

It could mean you are considering the old attitudes and experiences of your life and culture and wondering about their value. Or perhaps seeing if there is anything of value to be taken into the present or future. Maybe looking for something, deciding what you want and what you will ‘pay’ for it in your life. If you make a living from buying and selling, then the dream would perhaps relate to your work and opportunity.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Are you buying or selling?

If selling what is it you hope to get a reward for and what associations do you have with it?

If buying what is it you want, and what does that suggest about you?

What are you doing at the auction?

Use Processing Dreams to explore your dream.

Audience

If you are leading the action and not one of the audience, it indicates that you have got the attention of many aspects of you, as when you become excited and enthused with an idea, plan or person. If you are one of the audience then it means you are giving attention to something that is interesting you, but you are not completely identified with it.

Standing in front of: You might be dealing with an important issue in your life which attracts the attention of many associated ideas and feelings – thus audience participation or attention. It might also be about desire for attention; baring one’s soul; self acceptance if the audience is positive – self uncertainty if the audience is negative.

In the audience: Witnessing some emotion or process in yourself; considering some aspect of your life. See: arena; Stage;.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is my role here and what am I doing or taking in?

Am I receptive to what is happening?

Am I expressing something important to me?

Use Acting on your dream to really connect with what is going on in the dream

Aunt

To some extent an aunt is a role model. We gather from their success or failure strategies for our own life. Whatever feelings we have about them, whatever we think of them, the dream will use this to illustrate something for you. So consider how you would describe your aunt, what sort of person she is, and how you feel about her. The dream will be using her image to illustrate the role you see her in. If she is a success, ask yourself what in yourself you are facing regarding success. If you feel she is a failure, ask yourself what of your own feelings about failure you are facing.

If she is dead and appears in your dream it can mean that she is still very active in your life as feelings and ideas.

If you are sexually attracted to her it also indicates that you see in her something you want in your life.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is my relationship with and feelings about this aunt, and how does that relate to my life now?

What is the central theme of this dream, and what does that indicate as the feature to consider? Is this really about my mother?

What is happening with you and your aunt?

Is she ignoring you, attracted to you or giving advice? See Characters in Dreams.

What do you feel about your aunt. See Dreams Your Magic Mirror.
Try using Talking As.

Aura

An expression of the level of your being or mind that extends beyond the narrow confines of your sensory perceptions or intellectual understanding. We know now that our eyesight is only aware of a tiny part of the spectrum of light, our hearing only aware of a small amount that dogs and bats can hear, and the radiations from our brain also are unknown to us except if we use special equipment. And all of those radiations are seen as an aura reaching out from our body and can sometimes be seen as colours or what we call an aura.

I know many people say there is no such thing as an aura. But now people are often shown wearing night or infrared glasses. These enable our poor eyesight to extend its range slightly, so the can see the aura of heat that surrounds living bodies.

Another explanation is that people who have a very intense experience of illumination or enlightenment sometimes are seen with an aura.

Sometimes we touch a concept or feeling that has massive connections, so vast they begin to build up beyond usual levels of realisation or sensing. We might call it a mega-concept, which goes on building and generating realisations we have never had before – that is, we have never made those connections before. When your mind is functioning in that way you become a different type of human being, an individual, but connected much more fully with your inner and outer reality.

So an aura around an object, person or animal depicts this function, i.e. that in the dream you are aware of more than you usually are, or more of your potential is being expressed. As such the aura show how much of your potential is shining out of you. The first example below illustrates this. See: archetype of the self.

The aura in dreams is also often associated with death, or the spirit of the person whose aura is seen – spirit being here used in the same way as ‘she had a fighting spirit’. Therefore it might suggest we are aware of wondrous or awful qualities of soul of the person or ourselves. It can also suggest power of some sort – internal energy.

Seeing an aura can link with intuitions or feelings you have about the person you see it around. Occasionally the aura indicates a health problem. In such cases the dream would include some feeling or realisation that the colours or marks in the aura showed an illness or upset in the system.

Example: I was following a woman up a hill. As I did this I experienced a very wonderful feeling. It felt as if light were beginning to shine out of me as if I had a glowing aura. When we reached the top of the hill we were arms about each other, and I had the glorious sense of being wholly myself – wholly a man. I sensed that I had reached a new level of manhood by more fully accepting myself, by more fully giving and allowing more of myself to be available to others. It felt to me as if manhood is a glory, a shining out of life itself through a particular person.

Example: When we came to my sister, I had the feeling she was ill. I can’t fathom why, but I was just about to ask him to look after her, when he stretched out his right hand and gently stroked her cheek. He said to her, “You’re dead aren’t you?” I was absolutely stunned and it was then that I was aware of how cold and white he was. I realised then that he was dead, and so he could see she was dying – due to some aura as her spirit was leaving her body. He then disappeared, and I was frantic trying to find him, to ask him how long before she would die. I was crying and almost hysterical to find him, and that is how I awoke. L. W.

Example I had a dream that I was talking to about 5 or 6 people and I was reading each person’s aura. Suddenly one of them came to me and asked if I could I tell him the colour of his aura. All at once I heard celestial songs and his aura was all white. I awoke feeling like the person had been Jesus. As a result of this dream, I had a pain in my head for several days afterward. ARE dream.

The last example is interesting because the woman dreamer begins to experience something beyond her usual awareness. The pain in the head is a common result of this as parts of the brain that were dormant or inactive begin to operate or develop.

Example: ‘I walked past a married couple who were walking up the hill too. As I passed I heard them say something about a shepherd. Looking up the hill I saw the sheep, then The Shepherd. A beautiful aura of many colours surrounded The Shepherd. I looked and felt joy and exuberance rise in me, and I ran to the couple saying it was THE SHEPHERD.’ Brian C.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I feeling or realising about the aura?

Does this extend my awareness of something or someone?

If I imagine myself as that aura what do I feel?

See Altered State of Consciousness – Dreams are Virtual Realities – Enlightenment.

Australia

To have Australia in your dream depend almost entirely on whether you have lived there, born there or whether it is an unknown for you. So you need to ask yourself what associations you have with the land.

But in general it could mean for many opportunity, hard-headedness, practicality, dubiousness about the irrational. See: Abroad; Australian aboriginal dream beliefs.

Useful Questions and Hints:

See Processing Dreams and Talking As to find out what your associations are – also Association of Ideas with Dreams.

Author

This may depict a part of yourself that is creative, especially to do with telling the story of your real self, your real inner passions and dreams, your life story.

An author in a dream suggests they are creative, and are a sort of author-ity.

But is the dream author really a creative person or just saying it for effect.

It might suggest ideas you have about writing, about becoming a writer, about the difficulties of doing the work. But it depends what the author is doing and what your relationship with them is.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is it you/the author has written or is writing about, and how does that relate to your waking life?

How would I describe the character of the author or her/his abilities – and does that describe facets of myself?

Is the author ambitious or something – if so what?

What is the action or theme of the dream? See Plot of the Dream.

What is your role in the dream? See Role in Dream.

Am I meeting the things I fear or dislike in my dream? See Fear in Dream.

Authority

Might depict what has arisen in your life out of relationship with father. Or the dream might depict your relationship with authority, or a view of how you use power of authority. See conformity.

An authority figure in dreams can suggest many things, depending on the theme of the dream. So it could indicate your own best sense or intuition; a know it all attitude, which might be ‘I am right and you are wrong because I am the authority’. Or it can be about dependence and wanting someone to tell you what to do and where to go.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I the authority in the dream?

Am I in a passive relationship with the authority?

Am I learning or teaching anything?

See Active Passive – Carry the Dream Forward.

Autism

Virtually all of us have areas of our feelings, or responses to particular situations such as learning or a relationship with the opposite sex, in which we have been hurt or traumatised. These areas or responses may be represented by an autistic child or adult. These withdrawn or hurt parts of self can sometimes express great shrewdness or insight when met in the right way. This may be because within such experience we hold awareness of how pain or difficulty influences life, and what pains other people carry. See: idiot; Archetype of the Outcast.

So it can represent your own lack of or inability to express yourself. See I AM

(Thanks Chris)

Useful Questions and Hints:

How am I relating to the autistic person, or the autism in myself?

Can I accept that I can learn something from this person or situation?

What are the events of this dream suggesting? See: themes; habits and Crazy As a Jaybird – Sane Reasons for Some Crazy Behaviour.

Autobahn

See: motorway.

Autograph

A symbol of who you are as an outward character. Usually a sign of yourself in someone else’s life.

Often indicates a feeling of importance – as when someone asks for your autograph.

Trying to get someone else’s autograph suggests trying to get some of their influence in your life – like saying, “I met this person”. See: signature; writing; Name

Useful Questions and Hints:

If this is your signature, what or who are you giving your essence to?

If someone else’s autograph, what am I needing or wanting their influence or power for?

What do the events of the dream suggest the autograph is in connection with?

See Processing Dreams.

Automaton

A habitual and unthinking or unconscious reaction; some aspect of the body’s automatic working, or a view of the body as mechanical instead of alive and intelligent. Or perhaps an unfeeling and automatic relationship with someone or something.

If the automaton is like a created figure such as Frankenstein or a golem, then it suggests something that you are now facing that you created out of our own actions and feelings, or is active as an independent force. See: Lurch; monster; robot.

This may be a sign of a trauma from the past which makes one unfeeling and so on automatic responses.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is the automaton creative or destructive – and can you see that action in your life?

What is the automaton doing – in my life?

If I imagine myself as this thing, what do I feel or realise? For help doing this see Stand in Role and Talking As.

Automobile

See: Car, or parts of car, such as engine, etc.

Autopsy

A search within oneself or ones life experiences for what has caused something in you to die or to stop functioning.

You could be asking yourself questions, and so examining the past for clues – perhaps for what has brought about present loss of motivation or sense of loss.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I examining in myself or another?

Am I tearing myself open about some issue, or being torn open trying to understand it?

Can I bury this body now it has been examined?

Try Talking As the body being examined, or body.

Autumn

‘The autumn of one’s life’; mellow feelings; gradual but often pleasant decline; maturity; middle age; past the prime; a period of change when the old order of things is fading away, and the new has not shown itself.

This might suggest a time of harvesting what has grown or been developed in previous years or months. Autumn in your dream may also suggest a time which is not good for active creativity, but more suited to ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’. The falling leaves of autumn may therefore remind you that many attitudes are outworn – no longer necessary ways of living and working – are falling away and not to be held on to.

Autumn leaves: Old memories, skills, attitudes, things you have developed in life that are no longer performing a useful function due to the changes happening. They can therefore be dropped. It is just a process and like all life is carrying on readying for a new phase.

If the dreamer is in middle age: Represents these years of your life. The details of the dream show what you intuitively feel about these years and what can arise from them. It is therefore helpful to see if you can understand this season of your life and what it brings. It may be a time to rest and let go some of the outer activities of the past.

Mrs C. had the following dream at a time when she started her own business against her husband’s wishes, and one week before he walked out on her. Autumn here depicts the sense of something coming to an end.

Example: ‘ My husband was in a wheelchair, I was pushing him along a promenade. At the end of the promenade was a path which we took. The path went along the top of a cliff. The sea below was pretty rough, a typical Autumn day at the seaside. All of a sudden the path came to an end and there was a steep slope to the right which led down to the beach, I decided to turn right and go down the slope. When we got half way down the slope the path started to give way on the left and I found myself without enough room for the four wheels of the wheelchair. I was desperately holding on, tilting the wheelchair to the right to keep it balanced on the two right wheels when my husband got panicky in the chair and moved. The chair tilted to the left and fell down the rocks. I started running down the path towards the beach, towards my husband and the wheelchair. I never reached the wheelchair or my husband because I awoke and that was the end of the dream. ‘ Mrs C.

Example: My brother had his arm around my shoulder as we looked at the dark blue night sky. A symbol like a witch appeared in the sky. I looked at a tree with no leaves, just three branches. A cat and dog sat on it. The cat was on a branch that veered outwards. The branch broke off and my brother said, ‘Is that the way it’s going to be?’ Kelly 19

This fascinating dream by a young woman of 19 most likely depicts her relationship with her brother. The lack of leaves shows there is nothing now growing between them. The dog and projecting branch represent him, and the cat herself. There is I believe a fairly obvious sexual connection, and the dream shows how she is breaking away from an unconscious male female link with her brother as she matures. The branches come from the same trunk depicting family relationship.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the autumn of my dream offering or revealing?

Is this autumn a time of loss or of fresh opportunity?

What are the fruits of my summer that exist in this autumn?

See Identity and Dreams; Plot of the Dream; Individuation.

Avalanche

The power of frozen emotions. We can freeze sexuality by anger or jealousy, etc., and the build up of tension might then release in a dangerous way. A possible build up of tension or circumstances that can be or has been triggered into release.

Associations with an avalanche also suggest that there is something which is delicately poised which if triggered can cause a disaster. The image might involve fear of being overwhelmed by the release of emotions that had previously been held at bay – frozen or denied – and have been or might be released. There is also the possibility of anxiety about surviving a major upheaval or change in ones circumstances.

Threat of avalanche: Anxiety about withheld emotions being released or triggered into expression by events.

Dreamt by person who has been involved in an avalanche: Emotions connected with trauma of past event; anxiety about ones survival.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What has built up in my life that is now released or threatening to release?

Have I been ‘freezing’ feelings that I now have to face?

What can I do about dealing with this in a way to avoid danger or damage?

It might be good to read Facing Fear and Dream as Computer Game

Avenue

See: Road.

Aversion

The dream and its symbols need to be considered to see what the aversion is referring to. What one tries to avoid may be clearly shown in the dream, such as avoiding sex, social contact, or expressing ones power. If it isn’t, look for clues in the events, people or objects of the dream. Often, what we avoid has some difficult feelings attached to it that if dealt with will remove the aversion. One of the most direct ways of meeting an aversion is to gradually confront what is obnoxious until either the feelings underlying it are exposed and released, or the aversion disappears. See: aversion therapy.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What exactly am I averse to in the dream and how does that relate to my waking life?

Are there things in life or myself I avoid, perhaps editing them out of my thoughts and feelings?

Is there a situation or person I avoid because I have difficult feelings?

Please use Processing Dreams and also Talking As. It might be helpful to read Life Changes.

Awake Awakened Awakening

This means that you have realised something or woken up to something. Maybe you have woken up to your present situation. It can also show how you are emerging from a period of withdrawal. Sometimes you wake because someone is calling you or you feel threatened. It is important with such dreams to capture the feeling and see if you have felt that before in the past, or who is calling you and why.

Sometimes an awakening happens to mark a future inner growth was taking place. Or you realise as the example that you have ‘been asleep’ to much that you were capable of experiencing and now are awake to it. We can also realise that something has either be repressed since youth, or ha been held back from being expressed because you were involved in dealing with other things snd you have awoken things that you had wanted to do or develop such as art, writing, starting a business or even in the sense of a desires for love and a willingness to face sexual experience, and give oneself to it.

To become aware of something. Not able to let go of conscious thoughts and involvements.

Example: I was suddenly awakened by a feeling I was being attacked. Still dreaming I looked to my right and saw a strange man standing near my bed who I felt was trying to mess with my head. Reaching out I send a bolt of energy at him that exploded in his face. He immediately disappeared, but I sent several other bolts exploding after him. This amazed me because I had never done anything like that before.

Example: I know that she has had no sexual life for 20 years, and I have now awoken her passions again. She takes me to an upstairs room, and I believe her husband comes back, but she gets rid of him somehow, I think for good.

Idioms: Rude awakening; wake up to something; wide awake.

Useful questions are:

What woke me or involved my interest?

Is there something I am frightened of that keeps me from sleeping?

Have I got a habit of not sleeping?

Award

See: Prize.

Awareness

See: consciousness; Levels of Awareness; Brain Levels and Dreams; Unconscious.

Axe

Power, authority of material nature. Desire to hurt or destroy, or fear of these things. See: Arms; weapons.

Idioms: Axe to grind; to be axed lose one’s job.

Axe

An axe is primarily for cutting things down or for cutting them into smaller units. It is also a formidable weapon; so what part is the axe playing in you dream? See: weapons.

Idioms: Axe to grind; to be axed lose one’s job.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Does this represent a power or authority?

Am I ‘chopping’ an idea or situation or even myself into smaller parts?

What am I using the axe for – or what is my relationship with it?

Use Processing Dreams.

Baboon

Some people associate impulsive unreasoned urges such as self centred grabbing of food or sexual expression without concern for the other person; mischievousness; mimicry folly or foolishness or feeling an idiot to monkeys. But monkeys can also be instinctive or intuitive wisdom about relationships, social interactions and life. The Egyptian god Thoth as the baboon is a symbol of arbitration, and is also active in resurrection and giving of life and wisdom. He was the power that judges the balance of your life after death.

So the baboon can represent a world of experience human beings have lost and feel sorrow at its absence. Many humans have also lost the wonderful directness and ability to express their wide range of responses to life and people. In developing self consciousness, with its labyrinth of ideas and decisions, humans lost a sense of oneness with life around them. Baboons act so directly and apparently without conscience that it frightens many humans.

Animals have enormous remembered wisdom; remembered through instincts and complex social codes. Without it humans can feel alone in the world, a meaningless existence in the midst of uncaring circumstance. See Animals

Useful Questions and Hints:

What to I feel about the baboon in my dream?

What influence does it have if any?

Does it frighten me or are I at peace with it?

Try standing in the role of the baboon by using Stand in role; also Processing Dreams.

Baby Animal

This can suggest feelings you have about youself when young.

Feelings or memories concerning your own babyhood

Such dreams about baby animals can also indicate a desire for a baby; vulnerability; fundamental survival behaviours such as dependence, crying and bonding.

A baby animal sometimes point to pregnancy or a desire to be pregnant.

Example: ‘I am putting four of our puppies under the grill and cooking them.’ Maureen. LBC.

 Although Maureen hasn’t eaten her puppies yet, her dream illustrates how food is used to represent emotional needs. Maureen is childless, has a lot of mother love, planned the pregnancy of her bitch, and gets enormous satisfaction from rearing the puppies. She is literally hungry for the exchange of love and care she finds in dealing with her puppies.

Baby Babies

If you cannot find what you want in the first section, there are a lot of questions answered at the bottom of the page under Comments.

If you have given birth to a baby in a dream, it can represent a new phase of life; a new idea; new activity – as when we say someone has a new baby, meaning a new project or business. This ‘baby’ might be part of you that did not have a chance to be ‘born’ or express before. Or it may be things learned in a rich life that you could not put into practice because of circumstances. The baby in this aspect is the ‘you’ that could have been if you had been free from problems and past hurts.

In real life a baby is a blending of mother and father, and all they represent. A baby is a new thing that has been ‘born’ out of them and the circumstances they are involved in.

Example: My wife and I were walking out in the countryside. I looked around suddenly and saw my four year old son near a hole. He fell in and I raced back. The hole was narrow but very deep. I could see water at the bottom but no sign of my son. I didn’t know whether I could leap down and save him or whether it was too narrow. Then somehow he was out. His heart was just beating.

The dreamer had an argument with his wife the night before and was frightened it had killed his marriage. The baby son represented their marriage and his fear of the end of their life together, but the dream went on to show that it survived.

But the dream baby can also represent one’s own feeling urges at that level of development – such as possessiveness, joy, curiosity, responding to the world without words or formed concepts, innocent love, infant trauma; intense dependence; feelings of helplessness; vulnerability; lack of responsibility; and being cared for. Even as adults many of these early feeling responses still dominate the way we meet relationships and events. It is quiet common for instance for adults to feel intense and destructive jealousy about their sexual partner. This is exactly the sort of feeling we experienced naturally as a baby and child. Unfortunately in adulthood we seldom see such things as an emergence of baby feelings which we have not grown beyond. Instead we accept them as adult behaviour and justify them, often blaming our sexual partner for them – i.e. ‘You made me jealous by showing affection for that other man/woman’. The baby or child often feels murderous rage in connection with such dependence and jealousy, but it is too small to effectively act on the rage. When an adult feels such rage however, it is highly dangerous and irrational. See Beware of Love; victim; personal growth.

Aborted baby: In general something that was developing, a new facet of self, or a new opportunity that has now been lost or rejected. If in a pregnant woman’s dream, usually it is an expression of fears regarding ones ability to carry the child to full term – but it is wise to have a check. See: pregnancy.

Adult body with baby head: Suggests that the way one approaches life, ones thinking, is still immature, even though one is physically mature.

Adopted baby: Adopting a new stance in life, perhaps conceived by, or seen in someone else; taking on the responsibility of something or someone that needs care and help to grow; if you are trying to adopt a baby it would reflect feelings or intuitions about that activity.

Baby body with adult head: Suggests that while one has developed an adult intellect and rational thinking, or an adult self, aspects of ones feelings, hungers and sexuality remain at the baby level of development.

Baby Boy: If you have given birth to a baby boy, it is usually about the principle of maleness entering your life. Maleness is like the sun, it expresses most of its energy outwardly to give life. Whereas the female is like the earth, receiving and nurturing life.

Birth or emergence of a new phase of self expression in terms of activity or achievement. In a males dream may suggest a new self emerging, or new aspect of self.

Baby Girl: If you have given birth to a baby girl, it is usually about the principle of femininity. Femininity is about having the power of creating life within and nurturing its growth.

Baby Dying: The anxiety dreams include such images as giving birth to a baby who is only a few ounces in weight – the baby is malformed – the baby is born dead – the baby is blind or deaf or injured.

Castle was able to follow the dreams of over 200 pregnant women, often from about the time of conception through to their post natal situation and experience. One of his interests was to see if dreams showed signs of information about physical conditions that were not apparent at the time of the dream. He says that many dreams did in fact show that small shifts in the physical state, such as conception, were shown in appropriate symbols in the dreams of some women. So if you have a worrying dream about your baby it is worth making sure you check out its condition, something that with modern equipment is easily done. To quote Castle, “The unconscious mind of the pregnant woman seems able to monitor and detect biochemical imbalances, tissue abnormalities, or structural defects in the uterine environment and communicate an awareness of disturbed functioning through dream imagery, which is sometimes fairly literal, sometimes symbolic.”

Seeing a baby die in a dream can suggest many things. It can suggest that the most vulnerable part of you has been killed by your hidden emotions. Also I have received, over 40 years, many dreams of mothers who dreamt their baby or child was dead, and not one of them died. One woman who explored such a dream with me found that a death had taken place, represented by the child, and the death was that of her love for a man. She had ended a relationship that had lasted for years.

Dead baby: Dreaming that your child dies can have several meanings. In some dreams a parent, much to their horror dreams of killing their child. But our dream 

child can represent many things, and it is useful to realise that any person, object or scene in a dream is not a symbol – it is not dead thing that has to be interpreted – it is a living part of you and can only be understood by relating to it.

So in this way I have found that a child can represent whatever our strongest feelings about them are. It can represent your marriage or partnership because it is what you have created between you. In that case the death of the child can depict something like an awful argument that feels as if it the marriage has died.

A child and its death can also show you how you have killed out the growing or adventurous side of you; or if you see your child as vulnerable and needing protection it could show you the death of that part of your feeling.

If a dream seems to predict the death of your child, it is wise to remember two things. the first is that a said above many dreams about our baby are actually about injury or death of our vulnerable self – See Characters and People in Dreams.

That predictive dreams are very uncommon. But if you are feeling it is predictive remember that the future is not set in stone.  But you can pray for protection for your child and it can change the outcome.

Gifted or holy baby: Often shows the dreamer having given birth to parts of their personality which are connected with wider sympathies, or wider awareness, than their own personal ego or self. It may show an awareness of the universal processes of life. It is the same sort of meaning as Christ in symbolism. It can show the emergence of awareness of the levels of existence beyond the senses. See: esp in dreams.

Example: “Was in a basement where my wife and a woman I loved was giving birth to a baby, but I was somehow the one who gave birth to it without a doctor being there. It was a lovely boy. Its lower face was covered by a tight caul, but I pulled this off and it began to breathe. It opened its eyes and looked about, fully conscious; then said something about Jesus, and, “It is gone!” I asked what had gone, and it replied, “The other ego; where has it gone?” I explained that the spirit self it knew before birth was now gone so it could live in the body. The baby was then taken upstairs, and I felt it was a holy and wonderful baby. I was going to rest from the rigours of the birth, but on looking around saw how dusty and dirty the basement was. I began to clean it, and felt I would go upstairs and rest afterwards.”

The man who dreamt this said that he felt afterwards that at the time of the dream he had given birth to the very best of him. This became more and more obvious as years went by. Also he realised that his inner life, his unconscious, needed cleaning, and then began to go upstairs to his wider awareness. It could be helpful for you to use the following Talking As.

If you have given birth without any man involved, it suggests it is a virgin birth – i.e. no male partner was involved at the time.

Many women dream of giving birth without any man involved. Virgin birth is normal part of dreaming. It means that the woman or young girl has conceived as a process of Life. Being a virgin represents the human soul or psyche and its possibility of dropping pre-conceptions, thus attaining an inner virginity and through that being receptive to the unseen or unconscious side of self. Joseph Campbell in his book “Myths To Live By” says – “There are myths and legends of the Virgin Birth, of Incarnations, Deaths and Resurrections; Second Comings, Judgements and the rest, in all the great traditions. And since such images stem from the psyche (from you and your dreams), they refer to the psyche. They tell us of its structure, its order, and its forces, in symbolic terms.”

For instance, the story and events surrounding the virgin birth, when looked as if a dream are not about a biological miracle, but about how as ordinary people, we can drop our preconceptions, our fixed ideas and beliefs and allow an entirely new and creative impulse into our life. This truth has been so venerated that we find virgin figures all over the world such as Maya the mother of Buddha born 500 BC; the virgin mother of Osiris, and of course the story told of Mary.

Being a virgin in this case is about having a mind free from previous ‘conceptions’ and so being open to Life itself fertilising you for a new and precious thing being born. If you are not a virgin because you have had children, that is not what virgin birth is about. It is about conceiving without any mental preconceptions, having an open and receptive mind or soul. it is about a wonderful human possibility.

So the dream baby born to you in this way a wonderful creative act between you and Life. It is a new part of you that if you let it gradually grow into your waking life as a new force, a new way of feeling about life and acting. Being pregnant like that is very important. Obviously you are not going to give birth to a physical baby, but dream babies are important too.

Only a ‘virgin birth’ can bring forth the birth of an intuition, a new response to oneself and ones environment, that transforms ones life. This is a living relationship with the mystery which underlies our life. If we generate a child in this way, we are not held prisoner by habits of thought, stereotypes of behaviour, then we can begin to allow into our waking life what was previously impossible to know. This open state of mind and feelings, acts as a link between the identity or personality, and the deep unconscious life processes. This link allows a birth of realisations and inner change that brings healing and a possibility of experiencing the aspect of oneself that is our core self.

Crying baby or helpless baby: Your fundamental needs are not being, or were not in the past, met. These include basic things like feeling happy and relaxed in ones environment, feeling wanted and loved, having a sense of connection with other people. There may be something distressing you at a feeling/needing level that you are not acknowledging; a new project or aspect of self needing more care.

But it is part of inbuilt wisdom in babies to cry and act helpless of injured to get their needs or a parents love. So if you dream of such a baby it may well be showing you that you are using the same tactics to get people’s sympathy.

Example: Baby pelicans can produce a false epileptic fit; they do this because it is a way to get their parents to carry on feeding them. The alternative is that they must get off their butt and feed themselves.

Dream Baby – i.e. one you gave birth to in your dream. Dream babies are usually special and are a way that you give birth to either parts of your personality that have developed over time and  are now ‘born’. They slowly become obvious to us as new talents, a new direction, or even a new way of life.

Such babies are easy to give birth to, and usually are beautiful and speak soon.

Do I need a pregnancy test if I dream of having a baby?: If you are having unprotected regular sex or if you are trying for a baby, then yes have a test.  But if you know you had not had sex with a partner, then it is a dream baby. See all the comments and answers at the bottom of the page.

Dropping a baby: Carelessness in dealing with your basic needs, especially in relationship; mishandling an opportunity; betraying trust; feeling you have been ‘dropped’ by someone, perhaps in a relationship. It might also at times suggest a miscarriage or the lack of support in caring for a pregnancy.

Example: I turned and ran with the pram at a small boy on a tricycle who was pedalling toward me playfully. We laughingly collided. Not a bad bump, but enough to send the baby over onto the ground on its head. The baby cried but didn’t seem badly hurt. I realised it was the second time I had dropped the baby, and felt I must be more careful and responsible. We were then preparing for a storm on the ship.

It was during the past few days that my wife told me that her period was late. She thought she was pregnant. This caused an awful situation between us. I was out of work in an area that offered me no work. I suggested she had an abortion. As it turned out it was a false pregnancy. However, the damage had been done. (Apparently I had dropped the baby?)

Girl baby: Birth or emergence of new aspects of feelings and feeling relationship with others. But in a females dream may mean an emergence of a new phase or a new start in her life.

Giving birth: A healthy woman is designed by nature to create a baby.  But it is also true that at the heart of a woman’s being is the power of creation, and that creation can go in any direction – a mother, an artist, a dancer, a poet, a social worker, or even an alcoholic or drug dependent.

But in our dream world the image of your creation is usually in the form of a baby. But as you may not be pregnant you have produced an image of your creation and creativeness. It is new so you do not know what it is. That you have dreamt this at all shows you need to take note of this extraordinary creativeness and investigate it. You can do this by imagining your self as the baby –  remember that dreams are showing reflections of your own inner world so the baby is an expression of your creativity – and talk as the baby describing what it feels. Use Talking As.

If it is difficult or a C-section then you are anxious or have fears about having a baby, or else there is a history of difficulty that you need to work out. Try using Carry the Dream Forward.

That you have dreamt this at all shows you need to take note of this extraordinary creativeness and investigate it. You can do this by imagining your self as the baby –  remember that dreams are showing reflections of your own inner world so the baby is an expression of your creativity – and talk as the baby describing what it feels. Talking As

And do not dismiss this as a silly dream, such dream babies have a very real purpose and life of their own. They are your creation out of the wonderful creative process that is a woman, and your own ideals and longings. If you nurture them you will see them grow – I call the spirit children.

Happy baby: Feeling at ease with oneself and surroundings. It may be that something has happened in a relationship or environment that brings a deeper level of relaxation and sense of security.

Hitting the baby: Usually a sign of not being able to cope with ones own childhood pain, and so it ends in hitting. See: hitting.

In a man’s dream: The same as general definitions, but also may be oneself at that age; desire for parenthood; weight of responsibility; fear of inability to produce. See Man Giving Birth to Baby.

In child’s dream: Themselves at that age; feelings about a baby sibling.

In woman’s dream: The same as general definitions, but also may be oneself at that age; desire for a baby; responsibility of caring for baby; worries about having healthy baby; worries about baby’s welfare.

Losing/not finding a baby: Losing contact with or not caring for your fundamental feeling responses to life; losing an opportunity or mishandling a delicate relationship; feeling lost and abandoned in ones own child feelings.

Man giving birth to a baby: Often happens during the pregnancy of the mans partner; shows the man bringing something to birth in himself. This is usually a new understanding, or a new sympathy or viewpoint. It can show the emergence of awareness of the unconscious. See Special Baby

Neglecting or forgetting baby: Many baby dreams, as in the example at the bottom, have this theme of neglecting, or even starving the baby. This is usually because we need to take care of, or be more aware of, how much personal need we have for things like care, appreciation and love being given to us. If as a baby our need for being held and given attention were met, then we can move into the next phase of our growth. But if these needs were never met, one is often stuck emotionally at this level of development. See Beware of Love.

If you are a parent with a baby, the dream may represent natural anxieties about ones ability as a parent – i.e. the dream may reflect a fear you are not giving as much to your child as you wish, or that you find yourself wishing for a break from parenthood.

Example: ‘I have my own baby who is lying in a cot in a bedroom looking very weak and pathetic with eyes closed. I know that he or she is getting weaker and weaker through lack of food and care. In fact the baby seems to be dying. The feelings of guilt are terrible because I know it is my responsibility to do something to make it well. I keep saying to myself I must go and feed that baby – but I don’t. I just keep worrying and feeling guilty.’ J. C.

Because of circumstances we may not have been able to satisfy all our babyhood needs – we may have been weaned earlier than we wanted; our need for attention may have been unsatisfied or we felt rejected or unwanted – and these are shown as a baby in our dreams. Dreams such as the above show how we sense the need of this part of us to be cared for and nourished. If some of these earliest needs are not met in some way, the development of our enthusiasm, our pleasure and ability to be involved and self-giving, may be diminished, giving rise to dreams suggesting the need for nourishment, as above. See: baby – healing and helping; baby in my dreams.

Nursing a baby: Caring for ones own infant needs which still exist in ones adult life; giving care and love to someone who is relating to you in a baby way; wanting a baby, or needing to express the depth of your own ability to give and love.

Pregnancy – dreaming of baby during: Most women dream about their growing baby during pregnancy. These dreams are vary varied and often anxious or frightening. Such dreams are not to be taken as signs of a problem other than natural anxiety. Occasionally a pregnant woman dreams of the identity or personality of her unborn child, perhaps even before it is conceived. This can of course occur to the father too. See: pregnancy; birth dreams during pregnancy; fifth example under penis, in the body section.

Sick baby: Our babyhood experience builds the foundation of all relationship with other people and the world. If for instance we are punished for being curious, or are traumatised in our need for love and support, it will show in our adult relationships. Perhaps we will lack explorative curiosity, or avoid or have difficulties in a close relationship. The sick baby usually depicts such difficulties. Exploring our feelings in connection with the sick baby, or being the sick baby as in Gestalt dream-work, will help uncover the details and intense feelings involved in such unsatisfying emotions and habitual responses.

Starving baby: See: Neglecting or forgetting baby: above.

Twins or twin: The many polar opposites or splits in us – the split between waking consciousness and sleep or the unconscious; the split between what we want in our deepest desires, and what we can allow ourselves socially; the split caused by infant trauma; the split between our sense of eternity and the facts of physical mortality; introversion and extroversion; something of self which has got split off; the lack of balance in our being; twins can represent duality, conflict, or two sides of an issue, but also the emergence of something new, something that was denied, or born with one, but never acknowledged as part of oneself; ones unconscious relationship with another person, such as occurs in a telepathic link; separation.

Or perhaps even ‘died at birth’, or one died, leaving us feeling only half a person; the lack of balance in our being. When one of the babies died and the other survived it might be as happens often that the situation wasn’t right for one perhaps because of health issues. See Tony’s Inner Voice

When appearing with a couple: The marriage – what is created in the relationship; the life process in us based on reproduction. What you have produced and care for or neglect together

Quoted from Dreams and Dreaming, by Norman Mackenzie.

Then I went back in my mind to being two years old when I felt that a terrible thing had happened to me, the realisation that my mother had no love for me. I saw her holding a male baby and I felt in that instant that I hated males. I had just this fundamental feeling, a terrible feeling, and it grew and I became full of hate and I realised that it was directed toward the opposite sex. I felt that this had begun at an early age when I felt that my mother had given affection to the male members of the family and not myself. I was the only female. I realised that at that age she didn’t love me and I must have felt jealous of the male This grew up within me.

This graphically describes the depth of feeling we often carry from our earliest years, feelings which deeply influence our adult behaviour. In this case it made the woman’s relationships with her husband strained and tense.

Example: I have my own baby who is lying in a cot in a bedroom looking very weak and pathetic with eyes closed. I know that he or she is getting weaker and weaker through lack of food and care. In fact the baby seems to be dying. The feelings of guilt are terrible because I know it is my responsibility to do something to make it well. I keep saying to myself I must go and feed that baby – but I don’t. I just keep worrying and feeling guilty. J. C.

Because of circumstances we may not have been able to satisfy all our babyhood needs – we may have been weaned earlier than we wanted; our need for attention may have been unsatisfied or we felt rejected or unwanted – and these are shown as a baby in our dreams, as with J. C. Dreams such as the above show how we sense the need of this part of us to be cared for and nourished. If some of these earliest needs are not met in some way, the development of our enthusiasm, our pleasure and ability to be involved and self-giving, may be diminished, giving rise to dreams suggesting the need for nourishment, as above. See: baby healing and helping; baby in my dreams.

Example: I am 48, have two children in their late teens and definitely DO NOT want another baby. Nevertheless I have a recurring dream in which I am always in labour, experiencing no pain, and although there are nursing staff I am in some sort of laboratory, although everything is very pleasant. I never actually give birth and when I wake I always have a vague feeling of disappointment. V. I.

This dreamers conscious decision to have no more children may be in conflict with her biological urge for another baby. But the dream might also suggest there is something she deeply want to give birth to in her life but has not yet achieved. Her creativity did not end with her children, there is still more for her to bring out of herself in some way.

Example: My mouth was full of what looked like liver. It was also coming out of my left ear. When I turned away from the mirror I saw medical people in caps and gowns who kept telling me to bear down. I then gave birth to a baby out of my mouth. I am an invalid and very sick at present. Mr. M. S.

This mans dream is about preparation for death. The baby is the extraction of all that can live on after his present life is left behind in death. See: death – is there life afterwards.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Useful questions are given in baby in my dreams.

See Comments below.

Baby-sitter Baby-sitting

If you are the baby sitter, it has connections with being responsible for a vulnerable part of you, or for someone else’s baby.   In some cases the dreamer gets very connected to the baby and so give it a lot of warm caring. Also there is the theme in some dreams of leaving the baby while the sitter goes off. Usually this ends okay, but if not see baby.

You need to ask yourself how you feel about the baby and being baby sitter because it will explain how you feel about caring for your own inner child and being responsible. There can be difficulty in being able to assume the role of being the child’s mother.

If you are not the baby sitter there is often then it can be a scene of great anxiety; or you have trust in the baby sitter. How do you feel about leaving your baby in someone else’s care?

Useful Questions and Hints:

If you are the carer, how do you feel about responsibility?

If you are the baby what do you feel about being cared for by the sitter?

It would be good to use Talking As and Processing Dreams.

Bacchus Dionysus

This can be seen as representing the influence of alcohol to change the way you feel, and even produce the lose of reason and so opening you to the power of God, the sexual urges, and intuition. Bacchus also was linked with rituals which were used in the Dionysian Mysteries in which intoxicants and other things leading to trance were employed in order to rid the initiate of social restraints so they could revert to their natural state.  See Pan.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this a ‘back to nature’ influence? See Girl in the Wood.

What do I fee in the dream as an influence if this god?

If I imagine myself as the god what do I feel or know.

See Talking As and alcohol.

See Pan.

Bachelor

In general it probably indicates the attitudes and qualities evident in the dream character. See: man.

In a woman’s dream it may be a signal that she is looking for a likely man, or it might refer to a bachelor friend.

Elderly bachelor: It may show a fear that you will lose your partner and be left alone. Or else you are still longing to be free to explore other women.

Man’s dream: Oneself if unmarried; desire for freedom, or comparison with present situation if married. Also it might point to the way you were prior to marriage.

Woman’s dream: Possible hope for sexual partner; husband prior to marriage; unmarried male friend; or if the man is married in real life, hopes that he were single.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this someone I know – if so how would I describe him and how do those characteristics or feelings apply to me?

Is this someone I do not know – if so what type of person is he and how do those characteristics or feelings apply to me?

What is my relationship with this man and what can I gather from that? See: relationship and dreams; Stand in Role.

Back

For Back of or Behind see Back Of

Back Pain: This can be caused by tension, and this is turn could be about holding yourself back through anxiety. See back pain and its cure.

Back – trunk spine: Mostly the back indicates your strength, particularly moral fibre; confidence physically; decisiveness, ability to stand in face of opposition; power to endure without being overcome. A psychiatrist once told me that many men in a tramps home were diagnosed C.W.B. It meant ‘congenitally without backbone’. That is, They hadn’t developed the strength to deal with everyday life.

Example: ‘I was looking across a hedge at a bull. I seemed to be just looking at its back.’ Andy.

Andy was a teenager, uncertain of himself. In this dream he was looking at and discovering his strength. This was a revelatory dream for him because he suffered a great deal of anxiety in the past because of an old back injury. He had in fact left a higher  paid job and taken a much lower paid work because he felt he couldn’t cope. From working on the dream he felt, he was adequate as a person. So the dream was a turning point after which his ability to explore and be active outwardly was hugely enhanced.

So the back can also indicate what you are holding back in yourself, or even what is happening to you ‘behind your back’. Holding back in this way can create real back problems because it causes tension in the back – causing pain – causing worries about the back – causing tension – and so on.

The different strata of the back may also indicate different aspects of yourself. The lower back for instance suggests the earliest stages of your development such as life in the womb and birth; but also the earliest levels of experience such as sensuality and sexuality.

The back at about waist height links with your process of growth and digestion of experience, along with sympathetic links you have with others and the world.

The back connecting with the chest indicates your emotional and feeling development and the way you connect with the world through empathy – especially what you take in and put out of yourself.

The neck connects with your ability to express yourself and communicate with others, along with such things as asking for your needs and speaking your inner truth.

Carrying something on your back: The influences and burdens you carry from your past. This can be useful or difficult depending upon what you carry. This also suggest your karma, or the results you face in the present of all past events and actions – cause and effect. See: dweller on the threshold.

Sitting on the back of an animal: Being supported by your inner and instinctive strength, wisdom and animal self. See: animals.

Somebody on one’s back: Feeling dominated by someone else; feeling the ‘weight’ of one’s parent’s, or someone else’s wants and decisions instead of your own. Carrying an influence from the past.

Idioms: Back breaking; back to the wall – See the example in nightmare, and note the use of the words ‘back against the wall and what it implies; behind one’s back; flat on ones back; get off my back; put somebody’s back up; rod for one’s back; pat on the back; stab in the back; turn one’s back on; scratch my back.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this indicating strength. If so what strength does it help me become aware of?

Is this an injury or weakness – if so what vulnerability or weakness does it help me become aware of?

What does the theme of the dream tell me about myself? See: themes; Processing Dreams.

Back of or Behind

Back of or behind house or barrier etc.: This suggests a more private situation or feeling. It can also indicate intimacy, being less formal, surreptitious, or trying not to be noticed, therefore out of sight, or trying not to be noticed, therefore out of sight, so could suggest you are either only partly aware or not wanting anyone to know – in other words linking with the unconscious.  In some dreams it means second best, an aspect of ourselves or life that we would not put in the forefront.

When it is something like behind a wall or fence, then it may refer to barriers such as feelings we have which act as social barriers , or get in the way of how we relate to people or situations. This could connect with such things as the class barrier or fears we have.

Behind: Repressed urges, one’s past and memories, or what is ‘behind’ one in the sense of having left it behind, like a relationship. It might therefore refer to something in the past, but may be influencing you again. The position can also depict your inner feelings, something that is inferior, or something we have pushed out of sight.

Being pushed back: Feeling restrained or restricted; feeling others are, or a situation is, holding you back.

Returning or going back: Being influenced by, or re-establishing something from ones past, or meeting similar life situation as met in the past.

Idioms: At the back of; at the back of one’s mind; back room boys; by the back stairs/door; behind one’s back; take a back seat; back to earth; fell back; back row; held back. See: behind; front; left behind.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I feeling this is a positive or negative place?

Do I identify this as a situation of greater intimacy or inferiority?

What does the rest of the dream comment on the position through context?

Is this something hidden or unknown?

See Unconscious and Easy Dream Interpretation

Back-Pack

See: Knapsack.

Backer Backing

Support; confidence; energy or another person’s influence in your life.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Who or what is the backer or backing I get in the dream?

What did it enable me to do?

Am I still feeling the backing given?

Try Talking in Role as it can be helpful.

Backwards

Can mean many things in dreams.

Walking or going backwards: Might indicate going backwards in age, so regressing or remembering your childhood. It might be you are reducing in importance or even in size in the dream.

Pulled backwards: By various influences such as sexual attraction, fear of going forward in life.

Backwards in time: This can be a way of feeling or seeing the influence of the past on us.

Example: I went backwards in time. It was England a hundred years ago. The scene was a gas works, the newly built, industrial England, very dull, soulless and material, but hard-working. The old buildings, machines, the past as a whole, were a millstone that was gradually making useless, or counteracting, all the work and productiveness. I saw all repairs on buildings being undertaken, and knew that although they looked impressive, they were valueless. Although it seemed terribly expensive, was to tear down the whole thing, and rebuild new.

In the example the dreamer is realising that the attitudes he had been raised in were so out of date he needed to rebuilt himself in a new image.

Car rolling or going backwards: The loss of energy or initiative to make positive changes in life. A feeling of losing status, or of ability to meet what faces one.

Falling backwards: Possibly fear of falling/failing. Maybe a way of getting you to lie down. Falling backwards can also be a sign of surrendering to the power of the highest in you.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is causing my backward movement?

Does this link with the way I feel in my life at the moment?

Do I feel as if I am not making headway in life?

Try using Processing Dreams.

Backyard Patio

This suggests a more private situation or feeling. It can also indicate intimacy, being less formal, surreptitious, or trying not to be noticed, therefore out of sight.

When it is something like a wall or fence in the yard, then it may refer to barriers such as feelings we have which act as social barriers, or feelings that get in the way of how we relate to people or situations. This could connect with such things as barriers or fears we have.

Example: I could see the goings on of that backyard world; cats roaming around, hummingbirds flitting about their nests in the bougainvillea, people out in the alley doing chores, the gardener or our apartment tenants going about their business, the stars in the deep of night. It was a bit of a voyeur’s world for me.

The backyard may also be a place where you can relax, dress how you like and do things you enjoy, or simple do nothing.

Example: At the bottom of the yard today, Down where the ground slopes Into the creek I sat near the great fir tees Listening to the breathless hush In which we each make our sounds And commit our movements. Looking up I saw the crows Flying with twigs in their beaks – Building their nests.

Patio: A patio is often a more carefully built or designed area. Also it can be at any level of the house or building. It often represent complete privacy, being apart from the outside world, relaxation. It also suggests an inner environment that is your comfortable way of being.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What was I doing or seeing in the yard?

Is it my own yard or someone else’s yard?

What are my recent memories of the yard?

If I describe the dream yard what would I say – try Talking As.

Bacon

Most dreams I see with mention of bacon are to do with being hungry and liking it to eat. But it can also suggest something, a food, that can keep for ages without going bad. Can also refer to supplies, earning a living.

The other references are to Francis Bacon and Roger Bacon. Francis Bacon is said by many to be the author of the  Shakespeare plays.

Idioms: bring home the bacon; save your bacon. See: food.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do you like and eat bacon?

What is happening in the dream with the bacon?

What are you feelings about it in the dream?

Try using Acting on your dream.

Bacteria Germs Virus

A hidden or invisible attack that may weaken or even destroy you – your confidence – in one way or another. They can also depict anxieties that undermine your health or attack your well-being; or feelings that keep you away from another person or situation – in case of infection.

The germ or virus can indicate fear of illness or feelings of inadequacy or a sense of uncleanness. Remember that nothing in a dream can hurt  you. Dream images and actions are all your fears, hopes, habits and wonders clothed in images. But of course if it is fear clothed in scary images, then it is wise to realise that running away and hiding can only encourage the fear. Better to face it. See victims; Facing Fear and also the example under prison.

In investigating virus intuitively, I saw that each different virus was such a packet of data or information, and that life had produced packets of data about the potential for almost anything. In other words, different viruses could have an infinite number of effects in one system. Some might produce a destructive response; others might produce a positive change in mind or body. They are the information base of life. They are the lumps of information other life forms take and use.

The main point of change for me lay in the feeling that a virus might have a very life enhancing effect, not simply a life destructive one as we are led to believe. At the end I felt I had made an agreement with life for myself, my family and Hyone, that our choice of ‘viral data’ was a life enhancing one. We had chosen to be on the side of life, and this would act as a way of choosing the packets of information we would need for our physical, mental and spiritual growth. We live in the midst of continual change. Part of our fundamental need is to change to meet the altering environment in which we exist. But without care we might choose a direction of change that becomes destructive.

The word germ is used extensively to suggest the beginning of something, the point from which great growth can occur, so if the dream does not suggest anxiety, there may be a positive connection with growth.

Bacterial warfare: The undermining of ones personal or social well-being by surreptitious means.

Computer virus: Being got at by another person; something surreptitious that you feel is or might attack or undermine your work. It could indicate something that is a destroyer of calm and pleasure, so energy that may be disruptive, but is like bundles of automatic functioning of some sort, depending on the dream. So the virus could also suggest unconscious responses in yourself that are destructive or undermine your conscious life. See habits.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What sort of influence do I feel or see the virus or bacteria having and how does that apply to me?

Am I experiencing an anxiety or fear that is undermining my health and activities?

Is there an influence I feel from someone else that triggers my own negative feelings or fear?

Being the Person or Thing might help you find out the meaning of your dream.

Bad

Our view of what is bad or good changes with each generation. It was thought so bad in the past to be born out of wedlock that people lived a life of shame. One woman who came to me could not even say the word ‘illegitimate’, it held too much emotion for her.

Here are some examples of its use in dreams.

Example: A man in the class said that he felt bad because he had few clothes on. There was an atmosphere of shame because of sex or the body, so I told him to put his shirt on.

Example: I had slept with the woman’s daughter and now she was going to have a baby. I didn’t seem to mind, and accepted the responsibility, and despite being married with a newborn baby, was going to bring up this baby, and maybe even have the mother living in. I realised that I had always thought/felt intercourse with animals was sinful and awful, but now saw nothing bad as I loved the cat.

Example: I was in a cinema with the children. We were sitting near the front on the right. The children were on my left. Beside me on my right was a man, a sort of incarnation of evil – lecherous – filth – devilishness. He leered at me and I believe I stared back. Next the man was on the stage. He was hanged by the neck, without, it seemed, any body, only his leering awful face at the end of the rope. I felt it was bad for the children and was going to get them out.

Bad used in a dream description will probably depend upon your own upbringing. So think carefully were the bad feeling comes from. Even killing someone although it is judge as universally bad, is legalised in warfare – whether national or business.

Something bad such as eggs or food refers to something that might be upsetting you, or that you are taking in rotten information or feelings. But as usual it depends on the context in the dream. See Context; evil; rotten.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the feeling or thought of badness about?

Is it something that is often troubling you?

Why did you see it as bad?

Why not try exploring your dream by using Processing Dreams.

Badge

A feeling of identifying with a particular group if the badge is connected with a group or organisation; memories, experiences, things learned with a group or organisation. The badge might suggested an attitude, depending what the badge is. It might suggest courage, authority (such as police badge) or social recognition, or a role; a sense of achievement; a reminder of values held or feelings that strengthen beliefs. This is meant in the way a person will wear a Christian cross or St. Christopher to remind them of their moral decisions or help bring confidence in the face of anxiety. But a badge worn in this way also means you readily show to others what you feel or believe. So it could be the revealing of love, beliefs or decisions made, depending on the badge.

The badge might also link with potential strength and feelings of authority, as one might have with a police badge; acknowledgement of attainment; if it is a name badge it most likely suggests your own sense of identity, or the identity you display to others – or who you feel yourself to be in the circumstance of the dream.

In some dreams the badge shows that you have now achieved a new status, as when you have passed a test or achieved a higher rank. The badge therefore lets others know what qualities you have, what skills you have, or what remarkable deeds you have done. The feathers of an American Indian brave would have a similar significance. See: feather.

Useful questions are:

Does the badge have words – if so what do they connect with in your life or thought?

What does this badge mean to me?

Does this represent an important quality or skill – if so what? Is it related to an organisation – if so what do I feel or associate about it?

What rank or achievement does the badge denote.

Badger

May refer to badgering people, or feeling badgered; the quiet unobtrusive or even secluded life – so may refer to urges to get away from other people’s influence or company; define what you associate with the badger, as there are very mixed general associations with this animal, far more so than with the fox for instance.

Useful questions are:

If I imagine myself as the badger in my dream what does it feel like and what am I doing? (For help doing this see Stand in Role under peer dream work.)

How would I describe a badger, and how does that apply to me?

Badminton

See: games and gambling.

Baffled

baffled This is self explanatory, as if you are baffled in your dream then you are directly experiencing the feeling. So the important thing is to see in what situation, environment or activity the baffled feeling is arising. Then see if this fits into any of your waking life situations or perplexities.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I failing to understand in my waking life?

What am I doing in this dream that applies to my waking life, even as an allegory?

When did I last feel baffled like that?

Try Exploring your Dreams to see if you can get through the bafflement.

Bag Baggage

In some dreams it represents the vagina, and female sexuality in general. More often, as in example below, depicts the dreamer’s identity. Our sense of identity is often dependent largely on social contacts and recognition. The bag, especially handbag, with all one’s personal belongings and money, credit cards, represents our social ability to get places and cope.

The bag can also link with the ‘luggage’ of attitudes, chip on the shoulder, beliefs or fears we carry about in life. Or it can be the things we put away or hide from ourselves and others, therefore secrets, perhaps danger.

The dream bag might contain the personal skills or tools one has, or is carrying with you, such as a laptop, mobile/cell phone. Or it could connect with a holiday or getting away from work or home; freedom or the ability to move.

Another possibility is the association with protective attitudes, as when one might carry something precious in a bag – such as a baby, small animal or objects; secrets or what is hidden, so unpacking it may bring revelations or the unexpected; ones hopes or dreams.

Example: ‘I am in a strange town – usually where there are shops and lots of people. I don’t know where I am or how I got there, but I suddenly realise I have lost my handbag. I know no one and do not know what to do. When I panic I wake.’ Mrs R.

Mrs R. has obviously lost her feeling of who she is and her identity and confidence. So her bag link with all those things.

Bag of refuse: Desire, emotions, ideas you have discarded, or need to discard; rubbish being dumped on you by someone else.

Bag over ones head: Trying to hide, or feelings of fear or inadequacy; a cover up.

Body bag: Death or near death; loss of someone.

Emptying bag: Getting rid of attitudes or feelings one has been carrying about; unloading or looking at the thoughts and memories one has been ‘carrying’. Sometimes refers to leaving or dumping a lover.

Loss of bag: Loss of feelings of confidence, of the means to survive in the world; loss of something valuable; occasionally loss of child bearing function.

Packing bags: Planning to leave or make a change; wanting to get away; making changes; a journey; putting things in order; sorting out ones needs or priorities.

Sleeping bag: Powerful sexual symbol – i.e. sexual intercourse or a sexual partner – especially if linked with a partner; could also represent the feelings of being in the womb, or wanting to sleep alone; may occasionally have the same significance as a body bag.

Vacuum cleaner bag: The contents would suggest the rubbish you have picked up in your attempts to tidy up your life. It might also show stuff you have lost or been unaware of. Your attempts to improve yourself or your living situation.

Idioms: Bag and baggage; wind-bag; in the bag; pack one’s bag; punching bag.

See: Example in clothes; luggage; knapsack; suitcase.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What type of bag is it and what would you generally use it for?

Am I ‘carrying’ old attitudes or grudges?

Does the bag link with feelings about my identity or security – if so in what way?

What does the action in the dream add to my understanding of the bag?

Try Being the Object or Thing – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Avoid Being Victims

Baker

Creative ability; ability to alter one’s approach to make experience more acceptable – such as when comments, instead of being taken as criticism, are taken as information. Also the creator of bread, so the provider of basic needs.

It may be connected with money because of the term bread or dough being used for money. See bread.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I the baker or the baker is just a character in the dream?

What food is there or is being offered?

What am I doing in relationship with the baker?

See Characters in Dreams and Talking As.

Balance

Your ability to judge and discriminate, to measure one thing against another. It may also suggest conscience, that weighs outer acts against the innermost feelings.

Balcony

It can mean an attitude of looking down on people, maybe superiority but it could also be about not wanting to get involved or express who one really is.

A balcony in a theatre is also a special place for important people, and also a dangerous place for young children. Veranda can be an outdoor place for entertainment or socialising, so can suggest an ability to express yourself and be sociable.

A balcony can be a place of observation that puts you apart from others – at a remove. You can feel out of reach to those below you. It might be that you do  not want to get involved. There can be feelings of  underhanded superiority and manipulative through servility.

There in some dreams are fears of falling, or of babies going over the edge. The baby is your true feelings and urges. It is sometimes suggesting suicide. See Suicide

A balcony can also be a launch to fly from, a very thrilling thing, suggesting an ability to express your positive feelings. It can also be a high place from which you can observe much more, or even fight a battle from. Also a balcony is in a higher place – as in a theatre – can is often associated with uplift and wonder,

 Example: I seemed to know that a group of men were worshiping in this church. They were on the balcony. They were young, happy, and communicative. As I looked at the church I knew they were worshipping by chanting. Being in the church and near these God loving men I became filled with the spirit. It was like an intense emotion and power flowing through me, and it led me to sing and pray and speak.

Example: When I was in the house I started looking for my 22 air rifle. I felt that with the rifle I could threaten the woman and equalize the situation with woman who was shooting at me. A walked out onto a balcony. From there I could look down upon the situation but instead of equalizing what happened was that we all begun to shoot at each other. Everybody seems to have guns at this point. We were dodging each other’s bullets.

But instead I look into the feeling of the dream and saw it was impossible for me to get hurt or shot. What ever happens in the imagery can never be any damage to one in a dream. This realisation transformed the situation – at least, it stopped the conflict.

Then suddenly, at one point, the older woman who had been shooting at me suddenly became very real in my feelings and very spontaneous. She arrived at the awareness that neither of us were losers. But it seemed to be that by cutting through the dream with the sense of awareness, it had changed the possibilities of it. It was no longer a contest that might result in a winner or loser. In this new situation neither of us would need to let go of our principles or direction. This was a very important point and I could feel it. Neither of us lost out.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What was my relationship with the balcony?

What feelings or thoughts did I experience in connection with it?

What actions took place on it or in connection with it?

Try Acting on your dream to find more about it.

Bald

See: Hair.

Baldness

See: hair-baldness under body.

Ball

If it is a ball game, the ball may depict something about a personal or group relationship and what is going on, the back and forward or interactions shown in the dream. Or it might represent competition and ways to win or play the game or life, love or business, with skill. The ball can also stand for wholeness.

A ball represent wholeness, an ‘all round’ view or a rounded character.

Ball: Interaction between two people, sexual and otherwise – the ‘ball’ is in your court – in that throwing the ball may show someone trying to get ones attention and response.

Ball games or being thrown a ball: Challenges, prowess, competition in the game of life; having and letting go; sex play; masturbation; a man’s ‘balls’; a way of moving toward personal wholeness.

Balls: As in men’s testicles

Idioms: Have a ball; ball at ones feet; ones eye on the ball; start the ball rolling; new ball game; play ball with someone; he has/hasn’t the balls. See: the self under archetypes; games.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What are you doiong with the ball?

Is there interaction with it of another person?

Do you feel any feelings or competition?

Use Talking As to help define what the ball is about.

Ballerina

The ballerina often appears as an image representing the beautiful idealistic self.  But this can be seen in different ways in the following examples. See: dancing.

Example: I was a ballerina turning around in a glass ball. I was dressed in white and blue snow was falling all around me. At first I was happy just spinning around, but after a while I became panicked. I suddenly had to get out. The ball would not break no matter how hard I tried, but the floor did and I went tumbling into white powder.

o Setting: In a glass ball. o Characters: No one but me. o Feelings and Thoughts: Angry, scared, worried, panicked. I believe sometimes I feel trapped in the mold I have at school which could be represented by this.

Example: One person, “looking for herself, came upon a tightly closed box. Tearing it open – in her fantasy – she found inside a lovely rose, and realised that she had been enclosed in a box of Puritanism, of self denial and physical shame. The outer petals of the rose, pink and mauve, seemed to whirl and dance; they sent her fancy spinning off like a ballerina into flowered landscapes of delicious sexual femininity. The inner petals were shaded from the light, obscure and mysterious. Here the colours darkened to deep crimson and velvet purple. They reflected her deep animality. These she avoided, until she realised that it took both the light and the dark to make a lovely rose. She could not have one without the other. Gradually the rose became a nourishing symbol in her life and growth.”

Example: “I’m walking through a marketplace with many colorful shops. I stop to admire many items–a weaving, some pottery, embroidered clothes. Now I’m walking down a hall, where my artwork is exhibited in a room. I look at it with excitement; I think my abstract of a ballerina is beautiful, but no one else even notices it. Why is it that I can appreciate other people’s creativity, but they don’t even recognize mine? I crumple up beside it and begin to sob.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is my ballerina demonstrating or expressing?

Can I identify with what she is expressing?

Do I ever daydream or fantasy being or involved with a ballerina?

Can I act out what my dream ballerina is expressing – try using Acting on your dream.

Ballet

See: Dance.

Balloon

Party mood and maybe linking with feelings about something to celebrate. Breasts and perhaps connection with sex through similarity to condom; the womb.

Something that can appear large, colourful and growing, but is only full of air we blow into it – life we give it with our imagination and emotions – and can be burst and disappear suddenly like a bubble. In other words a big deal about nothing – a lot of hot air. But imagination eat creator.

If the balloon is mysterious and perhaps white or glowing, it can represent feelings about a dead person who has ‘floated away’ from physical life.

In some dreams it might show a feeling of being fat and blown up. Also the balloon might be linked with gaining attention, as with advertising balloons.

Balloons are much like bubbles, so see bubbles.

Deflated balloon: The power or emotion gone out of something; a lost dream or hope; feeling deflated.

Feeling you are blowing up like a balloon: This might link with an experience of being anaesthetised. Also it could suggest increasing tension and feeling you might be heading for a crisis, or even of pregnancy.

Hot air balloon: Escape; getting away from the everyday difficulties or routine; wonderful fantasy; a birds-eye view of life on the world; a lot of ‘hot air’ as in empty or boastful talk; floating away from being practical or grounded. The ascent in a balloon may show going up in the world or achievement; feeling light headed or ‘floaty’. Descent in the balloon may show coming ‘down to earth’ or a feeling of setback.

Airship or blimps: It may suggest a huge presence hovering over you. Unlike an airplane that has to keep moving the airship can stay in one place, and because of its immense size might be felt as uplifting or threatening.

Releasing a balloon: Hope; testing an idea or ideal to see where it takes you; letting go of something or someone; letting events decide the situation.

Something suspended by a balloon: Feelings of rising in the world or being in a good place, but lack of security.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the feeling surrounding the balloon, and how do you relate to those feelings?

What is the balloon being used for and what do you associate with that?

Is the balloon rising or descending, and does that relate to events in your life?

Try Being the Person or Thing to define the dream meaning.

Ballroom

Place of romance or courting, therefore memories, the past, hopes and dreams. It could also relate to feelings of competition; relationship with other people; social position, such as feelings of class. Sometimes it suggests times past, historical scenes and the atmosphere they created. This probably relates to deep seated feelings you have about the parts of yourself you still haven’t brought to awareness. See: dancing.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What are you doing in relationship with the ballroom, and what does that suggest?

Is this a place you have been in the past – if so what memories do you have of it?

What is the theme here and what action in your life does it portray? See: themes.

See also Talking as a Dream Character and Characters in Dreams.

Banana

Male penis; disguised sexual desire; enjoyment of sweet food, pleasure.

It is often also used as a sign of love and caring in dreams. In some dreams it is a recommendation for your diet.

Taking one or handing one to someone: Desire to receive or have sexual relation. Or a caring action.

Man eating one: May be homosexual tendency. Or perhaps a dietary suggestion

Idioms: Fingers the size of bananas; go bananas; tough bananas.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What do I feel about bananas – do I enjoy or dislike them?

Is there any hint of sex or sexual feelings in this dream – if so what do they point to?

What am I doing, or how am I relating to the banana and what does this suggest?

See Processing Dreams.

Band

If it is a particular band or group, it may link with how you see the group, and what you feel about them. Otherwise it could depict feelings you have at the moment about working in harmony with others, expressing your won creativity. Sometimes this refers to teenage feelings and emerging sexuality. Team work; sense of different parts of self working harmoniously; or work for a musician; teenage emotions and feelings, perhaps to do with sexuality; comradeship.

Band of metal, material or colour around something: See colours or for metal see the type of metal or ring. The band in general suggests a binding quality, a wholeness, a form of connection or unity. It can also be a limitation or restraint. In some dreams it points to an influence, quality or power, the nature of which will be seen in the events and feelings of the dream.

Elastic band: Sometimes used as a way of drawing one back when they get too far away, or as a tight band to restrict the flow of blood, and therefore the function of what is restricted.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What part am I playing in the group, and does this help me understand the way I relate to the people I am involved with?

Are we creating something as a group – if so what does it suggest?

If this is a metal or other band, what quality or restraining influence does it have?

Explore your dream using Processing Dreams

Bandage

Feeling hurt, or fear of injury. The bandage also connects with healing and sometimes death.

Bandit

A bandit in your dream may represent an attitude that takes but does not give. Or it can be a warning against others who might take advantage of you and what you own.

Or it could be male sexuality in its adolescent, aggressive stage.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do you recognise these attitudes in yourself or others?

Is there anything you can do that overcomes them?

Do you feel threatened by the bandit in the dream – or are you the bandit?

Try carrying the dream forward and Talking As.

Banister

A feeling of security against falling or being hurt. Something that protects you; a protective barrier. See: the section on stairs.

It might at time be a link with childhood memories where hurt was involved.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What part does the banister play in my dream, and what does that suggest?

Am I near a dangerous edge in my life?

Is this something I have built out of my attitudes?

Try using Acting on your dream to explore the meaning of your dream.

Bank

Money worries or decisions about or events to do with money and the whole lifestyle that goes with it. Therefore it may indicate dreams or hopes about the future; resources – financial, mental and spiritual such as suggested by savings. It could relate to your internal sense of security – if threatened then feelings of insecurity and fear – again savings. It can indicate emotional resources such as confidence and sexual certainty; social power; feeling of pressure about debts or social money situation; something you depend upon.

The bank might depict the ways, the attitudes, skills or otherwise, with which you deal with your resources or energies. In other words what you do with the energy you stored up/banked. See: Money

Bank raid: Threat to security; feelings of anxiety. Or if you are a bank robber, feelings of desperation about money. Perhaps not feeling socially connected in the way to get money flowing to you, so suggesting that you access resources by force instead of understanding.

Bankruptcy: Feelings of despair or failure; the end of a scheme or relationship; the realisation or feelings that the direction has not worked and must be abandoned, whether a marriage, business or direction in life. Or it could be doing too much and exhausting your reserves, materially or emotionally.

Difficulty drawing money out: Frustration about earning power and thus ability to find security or esteem; lack of confidence or negative feelings about personal value. Perhaps there is a need to be personally affirmed, or a sense that you do not feel valued.

Talking with the bank manager: Thinking about, or trying to deal with issues of finance, personal resources or self esteem. If the bank manager is serious, then you need to look closely at your finances. If he is amiable, you are probably doing well despite worries. The bank manager also represents the wisdom or attitudes you can use as a resource to deal with the economics of your life. See Talking As.

Vaults of a bank: Deep unconscious resources; your potential or reserves.

Working at a bank: Dealing with money issues, security, personal values.

Idioms: Bank on; burst/break the bank.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What worries or concerns do I have about money?

Is my dream showing me new insights or understanding about how to deal with my life?

If there are difficulties in the dream, what are they and how does that connect with my waking life?

See A useful way to understand your dream – Dream Understanding.

Bank Notes

See: money.

Bank Of River Canal

A barrier or safety measure – i.e. to stop the river flooding, so a way to deal with emotions and maybe block them or direct them. A place in the sun, or an exposed place. It could also relate to a difficulty to be overcome when trying to climb out of water or up the bank. Minor difficulty or obstruction; a boundary, such as the boundary of what you might permit sexually or creatively.

The river or canal bank not only contains, it also directs the flow of energy. So any features of its structure or shape would give an idea of what is being directed and how.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this a barrier to my progress or a safety feature in my dream?

Am I facing a barrier to my progress – if so what

Is this bank about the way my energies are being channelled?

Are there indications such as feelings, thoughts or obstacles to help me understand the dream?

Try using Easy Dream Interpretation.

Banquet

Social relationships and a chance to be recognised or seen as being chosen. Perhaps  feelings about class, social position or status, or business/sexual opportunity. It might also be about feelings concerning eating and drinking, or a drive to impress, or being impressed.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is social recognition important to you?

How do you place yourself socially?

What did the dream events suggest about my relationship with the banquet?

Try using Easy Dream Interpretation.

Baptism

Being baptised or witnessing a baptism could suggest a new influence entering your life, and a cleansing away old attitudes. Because baptism is a readiness to let a new influence into your life, it could show you opening to your inner possibilities, or to life pervading and healing you, or an influx of what had been latent or potential in the Self. So in that way a door to a new experience of yourself.

Sometimes it links with birth or experiences connected with your own birth, and is thus a re-connection of your conscious self with the deeper life-giving unconscious elements within you. And birth does not necessarily relate to being a baby, because we can be born many times, such a spiritual awakening. This may be allied with an experience of the old attitudes or way of life dying or passing away. See: compensation theory; religion and dreams; archetype of Christ.

Baptism in water: Relates more to the emotions and to inclinations arising from ones birth experience. In Christianity it connects with the recognition by the community of the identity of the baptised baby or person. It therefore suggests an entering into this fellowship or Christian community. As this cannot occur unless you have a sense of allegiance and good wishes toward the group you are joining, it points to a change of heart. See baptism as an ancient mystery.

In other cultures baptism has the meaning of cleansing away old attitudes, concepts and ways of life, to allow a new growth from within and from ones social contacts. In the Bible water is spoken of in a particular way. For instance – Their hearts melted and became as water. (Josh. 7.5.) Water was also used to wash with and, more important, to quench ones thirst. So baptism in water brings one in connection with being cleansed, being changed inside oneself, and having ones longings/thirst satisfied.

Baptism by fire: This still has the cleansing in it, but the experience may be more painful, more fierce, burning away the old material of ones personality through powerful passions or emotions.

Baptism in blood or wine/spirit: Blood and wine are often synonymous in dreams, and may depict being deeply immersed in experiences that link you with collective humanity. For instance we all meet certain experiences, such as ageing, and to know how your personal experience links you with millions of others is a form of baptism in blood. It also may mean that you inherit the work, attitudes, insights, left by millions of humans.

Baptism in energy or vibration: Sometimes individuals experience what feels like a force flowing through their body, causing it to vibrate or tremble. Accompanying this there is usually a feeling of great immersion in life, or connection with all life, or the mystery that lies within all life. Occasionally this immersion is known to be into a collective mind in which countless others exist. Of course this may be true of the other forms of baptism also.

In many cultures some form of water container stands in front of the temple. People either washed in this, or symbolically wash by dipping their hands in it. Such cleansing water can still be found just inside every Catholic Church, and outside Japanese Shinto temples.

It is possible that in general baptism represents a turning away from the ego centred, or child dependent and self centred life, toward that of becoming socially aware and wanting to be a caring and functional part of the group or society you live within. This turning around is often accompanied by the recognition of your deep links with ones culture, and the enormous debt you have to it for language and the formation of your identity. This does not go against the idea of a rebirth, or the opening to your deeper unconscious as proposed by Jung. Recognition of your cultural inheritance as it has worked in you unconsciously, is in itself the gaining of a new life, and is an access to a wider awareness. See: archetype of baptism.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Have I recently experienced an influx of new life or an opening to a deeper awareness?

Has there been a growing awareness of my links with humanity and life in general?

What am I aware of experiencing in connection with baptism in my dream?

Try using Acting on your dream to gain a fuller understanding, or Arm Circling Meditation to explore the experience of baptism.

See: Water; desert.

Bar

(If metal or other rigid material – For bar/pub see bar room.) Strength; male sexuality; rigidness; an expression of aggression. It can represent energy or be a symbol of power, or a lever to shift obstacles. Sometimes it is an extension, barrier, fastening or support, or to can be a play on word suggesting the banning or exclusion of something, or an impediment; a means of discouragement, whether used as a weapon or as a physical barrier.

Exercise bar: Comment on your fitness, or what your body needs to get fit.

If barring way: Obstacle; block against your self expression.

Metal bar: Weapon; defensiveness; aggressiveness or anger; strength; penis.

Sand-bar: Safe place to stand out of the water – emotion; possible danger if in a boat – or a place to land, i.e. make a change, possibly from drifting in life or feelings.

What we do with the bar: How we are expressing energy or power at that time.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is being done with the bar, and what meaning or feeling do you attach to that?

Does the bar have strength or is it lacking power – and is that feeling apparent in your life at any time?

What do you feel if you imagine holding the bar in your hands?

Try using Talking As if you are uncertain of the meaning in your dream.

Bar Room Pub

What happens in the bar may indicate how you relate to social relationships at a basic level. A public bar can either represent the sense of pleasure, love of company and entertainment, or sometimes the place where you experience changes in yourself – i.e. influence of alcohol or spirit. Often indicates how you relate to groups, or relaxation – or conflict – with friends and others. The meaning depends on the action and relationships occurring in the dream. There may therefore be signs of aggressiveness or defensiveness. It can also indicate your feelings about society, or exploring ideas or feelings, as one might in a communicative atmosphere in a bar.

It can be about your hopes, fears or expectations in regard to finding a sexual partner. Therefore the meaning might be about the meeting or avoiding of the complexities of relationship, gathering information or realising things unconsciously gathered.

The bar-room can be about difficulties regarding alcohol; your technique for avoiding confrontation with loneliness, anxiety, sense of failure, etc. See  Alcohol.

Barman/barkeep:

Idioms: Prop up the bar; colour bar; barring the way.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is taking place in the bar and how does that relate to me?

If there are difficulties what are they?

What is the essential dynamic of the relationships in the bar?

See Easy Dream Interpretation; Stand in role.

Bar Room/Pub

What happens in the bar may indicate how you relate to social relationships at a basic level. A public bar can either represent the sense of pleasure, love of company and entertainment, or sometimes the place where you experience changes in yourself – i.e. influence of alcohol or spirit. Often indicates how you relate to groups, or relaxation – or conflict – with friends and others. The meaning depends on the action and relationships occurring in the dream. There may therefore be signs of aggressiveness or defensiveness. It can also indicate your feelings about society, or exploring ideas or feelings, as one might in a communicative atmosphere in a bar.

It can be about your hopes, fears or expectations in regard to finding a sexual partner. Therefore the meaning might be about the meeting or avoiding of the complexities of relationship, gathering information or realising things unconsciously gathered.

The bar-room can be about difficulties regarding alcohol; your technique for avoiding confrontation with loneliness, anxiety, sense of failure, etc.  See: Alcohol.

Idioms: Prop up the bar; colour bar; barring the way.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is taking place in the bar and how does that relate to me?

If there are difficulties what are they?

What is the essential dynamic of the relationships in the bar?

See Easy Dream Interpretation.

Barbarian

A more instinctive, less restrained part of yourself. The barbarian often has a lot of shrewdness about human behaviour, as this feeling level doesn’t have the social complications of a more refined self, and may therefore ‘see’ things as they are in a fundamental way. See apeman.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Are you in conflict or accord with the barbarian – and what can be seen of this in your waking life?

Is the barbarian asking or telling you something – if so what is it?

What can you learn from the barbarian?

Try Talking As to define the character of the barbarian.

Barbecue

Relaxed feelings of sociability or social relationships. It often has something to do with the ease or conflict in a family or between friends. It could be about sharing what you have – food, love, sex.

If this is about a barbecue restaurant it might point toward choices you make – as to where to eat, or about being close to someone. See: restaurant and café; food.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this dream about the relationship angle of my life?

Does my dream reflect a happy situation?

What am I eating or refusing to eat?

Processing Dreams can guide you through finding the meaning to your dream, or try Easy Dream Interpretation.

Barber Hairdresser

Change of attitudes, thoughts or opinions about oneself. Because we can change our social appearance by a haircut or style, it depicts changes of mind, change of image. Therefore being in someone else’s hands – the barber or hairdresser – shows the influence someone else might have on the changes we make in our life.

In some dreams there appears to be a lot of anxiety or fear surrounding the barber dream.

Sometimes having a hair cut can mean you are getting rid of so much thinking. In that way your inner life has a chance to open more. The hair and dealing with it can point to the way we deal with our thinking, controlling it, or allowing it to be out of control. Our thoughts can build up to become labyrinths we lose ourselves in, or terrifying scenes of fear we torture ourselves with. So sometimes our dreams point out what we are doing in that way, and perhaps how quieting or surrendering our thinking can open us to a transforming influence.  And usually, while you are having a hair cut you are looking in a mirror. This is the gift of reflection, the ability to see your Self. The image you see might not be to your liking, but is a true reflection of you, warts and all. See: Hair; Roles.

Useful Questions and Hints:

If my hair has been changes, what changes in my attitude or image am I going through?

Is my thinking needing to be changed or quietened?

What are the changes going on in my life at present?

Try Secrets of Power Dreaming – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Life’s Little Secrets

Bare

Basically this is about feeling exposed. This may be desirable or undesirable depending upon what you feel in your dream. It can indicate a desire to be attractive and noticed – as in the example, where Miss L. is enjoying an acceptable form of intimacy, or being open about what you really feel. It is also showing you feeling people know what you are feeling or desiring, or else being open about what you feel. This often refers to sexual feelings, or feelings you usually hide.

At times it can be a sign of anxiety about not being adequate socially or that you do not ‘look’ good, or lacking ability to conform to social norm.  See: Naked; Clothes.

Example: ‘I am at the doctor’s being examined. It is always the same. I have all my clothes off and he examines me from the roots of my hair down to my toe nails. I am just at the point where I am going to ask him for his diagnosis when he fades away.’ Miss L.

How we feel about being naked in the dream may simply show our cultural background and childhood training in regard to being undressed. In some families it is easy and natural, and in others something to be ashamed of and arousing critical remarks.

There is an almost instinctive drive in many young children to uncover themselves to others. Erich Fromm, in his book Dreams – The Forgotten Language, says that, “It is hardly possible to pass through a village in country districts without meeting a two or three year-old child who lifts up his or her blouse or frock before the traveller, possibly in his honour.” As adults, if such behaviour were punished or frowned upon we may still be stuck in this behaviour, desiring the acceptance we should have received at an earlier stage of our growth.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I feeling relaxed about this or exposed and vulnerable – and does that reflect how I feel about people knowing who I am?

Is there any signs of sexual feelings here, and if so what does the dream suggest about my response?

If there is a reason for my being naked, what is it?

Try using Easy Dream Interpretation to see if you can uncover more of the dream’s meaning.

Bare-feet Barefoot

To  be in contact with reality, your real life situation. Might also suggest rough going if walking is hard. Of course, in some cultures it could mean poverty.

Going through a rough patch in life if walking is difficult, or feeling unprepared to meet your present life situation. Letting go of the everyday duties and responsibilities, or feeling in contact with nature and your life situation if enjoying it. Feeling embarrassed about not being ‘properly’ dressed, or that you are not conforming.

Example: “You got to hope for somefing. If you don’t hope you might as well walk right out this minute and lay in the nearest ditch and stay there. There’s plenty a rough places to walk barefoot while your hoping – I know that. So just hitch your skirts up and keep on going over the stony bits.”

You might also have taken shoes off to walk quietly so as not to be noticed. If this is so it suggests you are trying to fade into the background in some way. See shoes.

If you are not bothered about being barefooted it can mean you feel confident and are not worried by social conventions. So can mean feeling playful easy and confident about your footing, even joyous and natural.

If you feel embarrassed by being barefooted and unsure, it suggests that you feel it is socially inappropriate appearance in many public places. But if you feel easy then it shows you are comfortable about not conforming to conventions.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I bothered or easy about being barefooted?

Is it hard to walk or am I finding it easy?

Do I often walk without shoes?

See Easy Dream Interpretation

Bark Barking

The aim of the Dream Dictionary is to help you make connections between your dreams and your everyday life; to discover more fully the powerful emotions and reactions that unconsciously direct your decisions and responses in waking. This is not an attempt to give you merely ideas to play with, to agree or disagree with, like fortune telling. It can lead to real insights which empower you to make more of yourself, and find your way through the many decisions with which life confronts you.

Your Guru the Dream

Your Guru Your Body

Dreams are one of nature’s miracles, not the result of a wandering mind in sleep. A dream is an interface between the process of life, our core self and our conscious personality. Life existed quite capably for millions of years before the self-aware human personality came on the scene. In all that time the ancestors of the modern human being survived without having a rational mind to reason with, or self consciousness to ask such questions as ‘What do I do about this?’ Nevertheless survival strategies were still developed in their unconscious intelligence. Dreams express this unconscious wisdom that was developed in humans and animals through millions of years of Life experience.

Life’s age old unconscious processes are still the major part of our being, yet we seldom consciously meet them – except in dreams. As our physical and psychological health depend upon a reasonable co-operation between the spontaneous processes of life – such as breathing, digestion and the thousands of other life sustaining activities and our conscious decisions and actions, the encounter in dreams is vital. As I often point out to those I am advising we are a human face on a long line of beautiful animals. In fact “You ride an ancient beast.” The ancient beast is your body, and your conscious self is the modern and recent rider of it. Some ‘riders’ do not understand their animal needs – and the fact that we have several levels of brain that are independent of each other proves this. Still active in us are our Reptile Brain, Our mammalian Brain, and our Human Brain, and the reptile and mammalian brains are still very active and constitute a large part of our human unconscious. See  – Brain Levels and Dreams –  Life’s Little Secrets and Levels of Awareness in Sleeping and Waking.

So, no plant or creature grows from a dead seed, and each living seed carries within it all the past gathered from all its forebears. So, the seed in your mother’s womb is as old as and even older than human kind, and you carry that wisdom or memories in you. But in this life you developed a new brain, and the memories you gathered this time are what you built your personality from, but beneath that is a very ancient self. To meet this ancient self try using Opening to Life

That suggests that dreams cannot be defined under any one heading. Like human beings, they are enormously varied in what they express. Just as one cannot say the human mind is simply a system of memory, one cannot say dreams are just the reflection of experienced events. The mind also deals with problem solving, predicting outcomes of action, playing with possibilities via imagination, creating the new out of old material, replaying traumatic and disturbing events in order to find ways of meeting them constructively. Dreams, being the mental phenomena they are, deal with all of these issues and more. The following definitions give the main functions observable in dreams.

Dreams are:-

I know how much you might like to skip the Introduction to Dream Dictionary, and if you are tempted to do so, I wholeheartedly ask you to read Summing Up. Without understanding the things given there you are likely to completely miss the point of understanding your dreams. The best technique to enter you dream world – Peer Dream Work

You can start using the Dream Dictionary by entering the word you wish to research into the Search Box on the top right of most pages and clicking the search symbol – or you can read some fuller information below about the dictionary and how best to use it.

But the quickest way is to put your word in the search box. 

It is important in reading the definitions of dream images to realise that not every possible meaning can be covered in this dictionary. So please see if you get the idea of what is being said and allow your own imagination/feelings to fill in the meaning.

There are several ways you can understand the meanings held in your dreams, and there are several levels.

The first is an easily understood level, followed by greater depths:

For instance, speaking as an object or dream person, one needs to take time with it. Learn how to actually describe what you are as that dream object or person. If I dream of a dog, don’t simply describe what you think a dog feels like, but actually take time to tune into the dream image and describe the dog dreamt about. Is it an old or young dog? What is it doing in the dream? Listen to your feelings and describe what it/you feel. Remember that each image is a creation of your own mind and unconscious, so you are really describing yourself. Say whatever comes and consider its value afterwards. Below is a quote from Tiziana Stupia’s book Meeting Shiva 

So below are listed several ways to gain insight and information from your dreams. Take your time with each approach until you get the feel for it, and then experiment with other approaches.

You can enter a key word in the search box. The Dream Dictionary contains interpretations on almost any type of dream subject. So, if you dreamt of a flying saucer landing in a field, and aliens getting out and taking a baby, a snake, and a pregnant dog back into the saucer, you could search separately for each of these subjects in the Dream Dictionary. Find the entry for flying saucer; then the entry for dog, baby, snake, pregnant, and so on. For each entry, find further related entries by looking under ‘Similar Articles’ on the right-hand side of the page. Then see Techniques for Exploring your Dreams.

Each entry gives the general meaning of the dream subject, just as an encyclopedia or dictionary does for a word. Several possible meanings are given. This is because as with our speech the position of the word – the context – gives it special meanings. So, a hot dog would be quite different to a black dog, dog-end or dead dog. Therefore, when you read an entry which has several different meanings, sometimes with a ‘;’ between, it simply means any one of them could apply, which means you need to think about the feelings in your dream, the context, the other imagery used. Please do not fall into the trap that one reviewer made of saying that the whole dictionary is about sex. Of course, sex is one meaning among many others. So, use your own sense of your dream as well as any definitions given.

To really explore the meaning, it is useful to use the Dream Dictionary as it is designed, rather than arrive at a ‘thought out’ interpretation. To see a working example of this see ‘Dream Interpretation Example One‘. 

I no longer offer a personal dream interpretation service, but only occasionally if you manage to send  an interesting dream I will respond – the reason is I am getting past my sell by date being 84.

Note: comments that have any adverts or links to other sites will be deleted.

In the meantime, here is a way to work out your own dream – Getting at Your Dream’s Meaning.

Please note: this a not-for-profit site and it offers real dream interpretations, not dream dictionary features that are not real interpretations. We ask no payment for these interpretations, but it would be a great if you wish to donate anything. I do not ask a fee for what I do, but if you wish to donate you can click on this Paypal Donation  

I have been interested in the health of mind and body since my early teens. I began writing about these subjects in 1956. My fascination for what lay under the surface of the mind led me personally to explore the unconscious using dreams and other mental and physical disciplines. From 1972 – 94 I worked as a psychotherapist using an eclectic, Humanistic Psychology approach which included dream work and releasing the secrets the body holds. My books include Do You Dream; Mind and Movement; The Instant Dream Book; Dream Dictionary; Life’s Little Secrets –Liberating The Body  – and many more. See My Books.

Throughout more than five decades I have been involved in a personal search for the secrets of mind and spirit. In those years I have also taught thousands of people techniques of deep relaxation, meditation, and methods of self exploration using dreams. Wanting to dig deep I explored the use of dreams and taught individuals and groups of people how to use these visions of the night to discover and heal the deepest issues in themselves, and to touch the high ground of their spiritual awareness. I worked for twenty years as a psychotherapist using several approaches, one of which was a way of honouring the body as a doorway to the unconscious mind, the emotions and spiritual experience. See Self-Regulation –  Recognition – Life’s Little Secrets – The LifeStream and Opening to Life

During the sixty years of seeking the wild wondrous beasts of the mind and spirit I dared my own inner adventure. But I also travelled with other people as an ordinary person, not a therapist, sharing their experience of fear and wonder as they unveiled and set loose their fountain of perception. I have travelled countless dream pathways, traversed the timeless with those using awareness enhancing drugs, and wrestled with the vitality of the body as people mimed and shouted their deepest intuitions through movement, dance and voice. See Tony’s Biography

My aim has always to share my findings – actually what I was shown or given from within – was given freely; I never had any teacher or attended a course, of course I read an enormous amount, so I cannot ask for money. If you wish to donate anything to the running of the site you can do so by clicking on https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JYTWAMC4LQLQ4&source=url 

My teacher has been from exploring dreams and occasionally touching the wonder we were born as – not from words written in books about that but by meeting it. See Enlightenment  

Profundización de la comprensión de un sueño; Introducción

In a similar way, by observing dreams and laying bare the emotions and associated ideas and memories we have with the dream imagery, we gradually define our personality, its strengths and weaknesses, we discover new abilities and we grow beyond our old problems, and that in a depth we had never managed previously. I have called this mind watching, but it covers every aspect of human nature, not simply the intellect or thinking.

This mind watching through observation of our dreams first presents information about our personal experiences and memories and how they influenced our growth and influence present responses. Gradually the information arising from such watching leads beyond ones personal self. It shows in many cases how our unique self has arisen from, and has indissoluble links with our forebears, with our culture, with the past as a whole, and with the cosmos itself. It leads from oneself to the edge of the known, and perhaps helps us take a few steps beyond that edge into the unknown, to create new understanding.

This mind watching gradually reveals to us the many aspects of the mind’s working, and with such insight may come the growing ability to use these facets of ourselves. Not only may we discover great vistas of personal memory, but also the roots of our creativity, the subtle senses of our emotions and unconscious, and the treasures of experience we have gathered. See Your Amazing Circle – Self Observation 

So how can we get into this magical world of our dreams and start to harvest the possibilities held there? The following pages of this book are designed to help, guide and inform on how to do this. The book is also a counsellor on what you may find in your dream adventure.

The information about dreams presented in this book has been gathered during fifty years of working with and studying dreams and the dream process. It synthesises the experience of personally helping hundreds of individuals explore their dreams. The examples used have been taken from a collection of over 8000 dreams put onto a computer filing system. The filing system was also used to define general associations with commonly used dream images.

The major input for definition however has arisen from the actual exploration of dreams undertaken by individuals. These are either people I have worked with personally who have deeply felt the emotions and issues behind their dreams, not simply talked them over and come to an intellectual interpretation but a deep insight, or are people who have written up their findings arising from similar work. Added to this is the commonly held associations we have through our language and the way we use imagery within speech. Of course your personal dream imagery may not be using the commonly held associations, or those used by other people, and so you must read the definitions with care and consider if these fit what is implied or dramatised in your dream.

In the entries in the Dictionary are explanations of the many different types of dreams and dream images. Despite some people’s attempt to explain dreams in one simple formula, dreams cover a huge range of phenomena and human experience. Amongst subjects covered in the book are thousands of entries on the researched meaning of the things, people, creatures and places we dream about. There are also many entries on special subjects such as symbols and dreaming; interpreting dreams; recurring dreams; nightmares; sex while asleep; teenage girls love dreams; precognitive dreams; talking in ones sleep; the dream as an adventure; Occultism and Dreams; science sleep and dreams; and many more.

There are a compete list of these Features and the  Archetypes covered.

Therefore, if you have dreamt of such things as your teeth falling out; being chased; or your marriage partner dying, you will find an explanation of your dream in the following pages.

The aim of the book is to help you make connections between your dreams and your everyday life; to discover more fully the powerful emotions and reactions that unconsciously direct your decisions and responses in waking. The book is not an attempt to give you merely ideas to play with, to agree or disagree with, like fortune telling. It can lead to real insights which empower you to make more of yourself, and find your way through the many decisions life confronts you with.

But you can move directly on to Using the Dictionary – or better still read Meaning of Your Dream. 

Dreams are a magical mirror in which your innermost hopes, longings, fears/terrors and genius are made real. They are made real as external environments, people, animals and relationships. It is as if all your deepest feelings, hopes, fear and wonder are projected outward onto a multidimensional screen. It is a world of virtual reality that you feel is real. Unfortunately this wonderful virtual reality world is usually felt as dealing with other people, as externals, like something that can damage us, or something like the Devil that can possess us.

But the greatest truth I have found in exploring dreams – not interpreting them – is that we are alone with ourselves in the world of our dream. If we can acknowledge and admit that our terrors we dream are actually our past hurts that we have not faced presenting themselves for us to heal; that the ghosts and demons that can rampage about our night are embodiments of our fears; that our wonderful visions and insights are an expression of our own infinite potential, then we can walk a pathway to finding what we really are. Audio Introduction to Exploring a Dream

Our Core self is that amazing part of us existing beyond time and space, and was within us from the start of our universe.

I suggest you only try one method at a time and use it until you are capable or it or it doesn’t work for you, then move on to other methods taking time with them until you find what works best for you.

Although the process of dreams might not be a direct attempt to present MEANING, a dream may nevertheless have a great deal of INFORMATION in it. This becomes clearer if we remember that not many years ago it would have appeared highly superstitious or suspect to claim to be able to tell a person details of their health and parentage from a sample of their urine or blood. Today it is common practice. We accept that a growing amount of information can be gained from these unlikely sources. Blood doesn’t contain meaning, but we can gain information from it. In a similar way a sample of our dreams can also tell us an enormous amount. Sometimes this data is obvious, sometimes it needs processing to uncover, as with urine and blood.

Dream Processing – The following dream needs no deep techniques of processing. The word ‘processing’ is used throughout the book instead of analysis. Analysis has the connotation of giving our own thoughts or opinions to the dream. Processing is used to suggest extraction of information which leads to insight. With this particular dream, all it needs is a few facts brought to it to make clear what information it holds. The dream is that of a young woman, Mrs C. L.

It is a bright sunny day. I am walking across a large concrete car park. It is empty except for a huge trailer from a truck. It has BOOTS written on the side, and stands high off the ground. Being 4’ 9’ tall myself I decide to walk underneath. As I am half way the trailer starts to be lowered on top of me. I try to shout but cannot. I get onto my hands and knees and the trailer still kept coming down. I am now lying on my stomach, convinced it is going to crush me. Then it suddenly stops a couple of inches from my head. I wake feeling terrible.

The dream is interesting, although the information it holds may at first not be obvious. But with a minimum of processing the dream information will become clear. The first technique of processing the dream is to recognise some of the key statements within it. These are I AM WALKING – I TRY TO SHOUT – CONVINCED IT IS GOING TO CRUSH ME.

The reason these are key statements is because the dreamer is saying ‘I am walking’ – ‘I try to shout’ – ‘I …am convinced’. The word ‘I’ is important.

This form of processing has not added anything to the dream. It has simply drawn attention to the information already there in the dreamer’s description of her experience – this is why it is useful to write the dream out fully. If we add a little more information which the dreamer herself connects with the dream, then it becomes even clearer. Mrs C. L. says, ‘I work for BOOTS the chemist. The employees at the shop I work in were told at the beginning of the year that Boots are selling our shop. When that happens I will be made redundant. We were supposed to finish on May 26th. It is now the end of July. The deal fell through so we are now just left hanging indefinitely until a new buyer comes along. I feel very unsettled as I can’t make any plans for the future.’

Having read these comments, it would be difficult not to see the dream as relating to the woman’s work situation, and to her strong anxiety connected with it. She herself says – through her dream – she is ‘convinced it – the situation – is going to crush’ her. She also feels her strong emotions about this – expressed in her attempt to shout – are not being expressed or ‘heard’. From just this one dream, we can be forgiven if we assume that dreams may express in dramatic form our feeling reaction to the circumstances of our everyday life. Taking this dream as information, Mrs. C. L. could see she is feeling crushed by the situation, yet not stating her feelings loudly enough to be heard. She might therefore speak to the manager to clarify the situation for herself.

Here is an even shorter and less complex dream. It has been left just as it was written so its information is immediately apparent. The key words here might be TRYING TO CONTACT HIM and NOT UNDERSTANDING WHY HE LEFT ME. The dream is from Mrs C. J.

Years ago I lost my first husband at twenty nine. I had the same dream continually of being in a phone box trying to contact him, not understanding why he had left me. He died of cancer. Later I remarried and this husband died of a heart attack. Once again the same dream came back so much.

On speculating about the dream from what is immediately apparent, we might say that although it is irrational to continually  try to contact her husband when there has never be any success, nevertheless, her desire to be with him continues year after year. This same part of her cannot understand why he died. We might put such feelings into words as, ‘But what had he done to die so young? Why should it happen to me twice?’ We can also assume that her desire to understand these questions, which is what contacting her husband represents, is expressed in the dream as the telephone.

The dream process has dramatised her situation and inner feelings – given them form and made them experiential. Looking at this dream helps us see how an image, such as the telephone, performs exactly the same sort of function as a spoken word, although in a different way. Namely, it represents feelings and thoughts. That the woman’s questions remain, that her problem is unsolved, is apparent from the fact she does NOT make contact on the telephone, and does not find peace. Understanding her dream shows her the importance of the questions she continually asks herself, and the need to release the emotions behind them. With this she could be free of the dream. If she cannot manage this by herself, taking advantage of the professional help of a therapist might help.

To make it clear how everything is a dream holds personal information, to give an example, I was recently asked by a man who had given no thought to dreams how on earth you could extract any meaning from them. He was wearing a fairly old T-shirt, so I said, “OK, let’s imagine you dreamt of your T-shirt, what would you make of that?”

After a while he said, “I don’t know that I would make anything of it.”

My response was to say, “Right, but now tell me where you bought the T-shirt, and what memories it has for you.” Whereupon he told me memories of being abroad, and that the shirt was part of those memories, and he wasn’t prepared to say what they were as they were so personal.

The important point is that everything we see and deal with, every person, every imagined scene, has such a background of feelings and perhaps memories. It is exactly this background of feelings and information that the dream weaves its story from. To understand it you need to become aware of the usually unconscious feeling responses you have in connection with every thing, place, person and animal you fill your dreams with.

For fuller Dream Processing – Below are described simple techniques that make it possible to quickly gain information from your dreams. They have been put as a series of questions. If you take time to consider and answer the question you will find your way into a new experience of dream understanding.

Read it in: Processing Your Dream  

Acting on your Dreams – Extracting more from your dream by letting your body and feelings express it can provide a remarkable release of insight. There are several ways of doing this.

Do see the instructions see: Acting on Your Dreams

The Peer Dream Group – This method is the most powerful and deepest method. It includes some of the other techniques mentioned.

The way of working known as the Peer Dream Group came about from our experience that dreams are largely self explanatory if approached in the right way. An exterior expert or authority is not necessary for a profound experience of and insight into dreams and into oneself if certain rules are respected and used. The dreamer is the ultimate expert on their own dream  and themselves but only when we break through to what is usually unconscious mental states, and when treated as such, and supported in their investigation of their dream drama, they can powerfully explore and manifest the resources of their inner life.

To use it see: The Peer Dream Group and What I Have Seen In Dreams

For the Dictionary put the word you want to look up in the search box at the top right of all pages 

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Bark Barking Howl

A dog barking can be from man causes. A dog expresses a great deal of its deeply felt emotions through its voice. It can growl, bark, whine or howl, and it can express all manner of things in each of the sounds it makes. So you need to ask yourself what it was voicing in the dream.

 Example: Suddenly my head jumped up and a bark issued from my mouth. In that flash whole areas of past experience fell into place. Years ago I had dreamt of being in bed, and a large black Labrador being on my back attempting sexual intercourse. In the dream I had pushed the dog out and pushed it downstairs – back into the unconscious.

It has just struck me that John B. had a black Labrador. This one strange bark seems to tie all this up together. It was not just a bark. Suddenly I had inwardly become a dog that barked. My soul experienced the condition of a barking dog. Just as suddenly as the bark sounded from me, I knew that the homosexual desires shown in the session with John were not psychologically caused, but arose from this dog nature in me. I can now see that some of my sexuality arises not from love, but from the drives of this dog part of me. Similarly, much of my aggressiveness has come from this source. But this is still too new for me to see any deeper into these parts of my nature, and what subtle influences they have on my inner and outer life.

The example give a clear picture of what a dog is in our dream life and what its bark expresses. A dog is the less socialised side of our instinctive urges, it expresses our natural urges that have not been repressed by socialisation. Of course they can be sexual, joyful, unhappy, aggressive, painful, loving and supportive and a joy in play. See Mammal Brain.

Howling like a wolf or dog: I have experience of the voice expressing naturally from deep feelings. About three times in my life when I had become close to a person and they left without any sign of coming back, without warning or intention I howled like a dog. It always surprised me because when I tried to do it I could never make that wonderful sound. It was a sound that expressed everything and was very full of feelings. I feel from that if it is in us to sing our life, something of that howl will express through us.

It is most likely when we feel so much and cannot express it in words and so howl – which is all emotions, so “I call for you – I miss you terribly – I cry – I pour out my being to you – Why did you leave me? etc.

 Useful Questions and Hints:

Can I identify what part of my feelings the dog is expressing?

If I understand that the dog is a part of myself (see mammal brain) what can I do about it?

Is the dog asking or telling me about that part of me?

Can you, as in the example, take on the role of the dog? Try Stand in role.

 Bark of tree: This can be both life sustaining or a cover up. Life sustaining because without the bark the tree would die – but some trees regularly shed their bark and so one can take it off and see what is underneath.

 Example: Dreamt, at Beaford (Devon), that I was looking at the large plane tree at the back of our house in London. I noticed the base of the trunk was burnt internally. I pulled away bark. It looked a bit like a bees nest, but was cindered would. Now I saw folds in the trunk of the tree showing that the tree was leaning, and I realised the cindered bark I pulled away had been supporting the tree. It would now soon fall. I saw a very clear mental image of the tree falling to the right where there was space, because straight ahead was a building it would crush. The tree then began to fall exactly where I had visualised. I now saw the top of the trunk base cut clean.

Here it is shown how the bark both supports and hides, in the case of this dream a deep hurt at the base of the trunk – the base of his being.

If there is a wound in the bark it can leave the interior of the tree/you bare, and so can lead to the tree becoming hollow. Not always a bad thing because people can shelter in a hollow tree.

Example: I was looking at a very large and old tree. I wondered if I could climb it but couldn’t see any way up it. But I noticed a large area without any bark, like an old wound, and I thought that area would become rotten and so the tree would become hollow and offer shelter to animals and humans.

Then I walked around the back of the tree and saw that the bark was like thick cables about 6-8 inches wide. I could then see a fairly easy way to climb the tree. So I climbed up and the top of the tree was like a massive bell of a flower, like a crocus shape. And it was light and colourful. Suddenly I saw a spirit, a beautiful female. It was the spirit of the tree. At this point I was semi awake, and I wanted to hold the beautiful spirit, but realised that the tree was a representation of my life, and so was the spirit of the tree. The spirit sat on me in a sexual position, so I was lying on my back and she was upright. She slowly took me into her, I mean the whole me, as if she was sucking my whole body into her. I realised that I had to die because she wanted to take all my experience of life and endeavour into her and fertilise herself to form a baby. So I was ready to die and watched her form a new baby, a mixture of her and me.

Here is another wonderful dream, showing both the wound of the bark and how later it became a way to climb.

In some dreams trees can speak to us, and sometimes they are like a judge of our life. The bark becomes their lips.

 Example: I look at the trunk of the thistle examining it. At this point it seems like a giant hardwood tree. I snap a twig and it smells very nice – a perfumed wood. Other branches are going rotten. Walking around to the back of the tree to see if the bark is rotten I notice a hole where bees or wasps have a colony. I put my left hand up to touch the bark and as I do so notice there is also a hole in the back of my hand, in and out of which wasps are flying. With great shock I look in the hole and see wasps eating my flesh away, so my hand is almost hollow. I awake with the feeling of being old and decrepit.

Here the tree is obviously the person themselves, and the bark is still protective – it is not!

Useful Questions and Hints:

In what way am I relating to the bark?

What function is the bark playing – protective or revealing, or something other?

How is the bark and the tree acting together?

Find out by using Easy Dream Interpretation

Barometer

This is an indication of your state of inner pressure or emotional climate. It can also depict what you sense of coming events or situations.

Clearly about the changes of mood and feelings that are either happening or arising shortly. This is like your own personal dashboard to say what changes are coming. The barometer also can indicate good or bad weather/situations coming your way. In other words good feelings and difficult ones.

It can also be a barometer of your pace, accomplishment and frustration.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the barometer suggesting is coming in my moods or feelings?

Is this about my feelings, or fair weather or a storm coming in my life?

Is there any suggestion in the dream of how to meet these changes?

Find out by using Easy Dream Interpretation.

Barracks

Barracks This suggests an intimate sharing of your life with others. Also it shows in your dream the complications or problems of this. There can be friendship, enmity, differences and hard feelings. So ask yourself what happened in your dream.

Example: I discover a thief in my barracks. I am furious. I am going to call the military police, but T. tells me to calm down that the guy is a genuine war hero. I find the evidence of all sorts of stuff he has stolen. I want to the call the police, but T. tells me to calm down. I almost hit her. Actually I can’t tell – because I have been drinking – whether he has stolen anything from me. But I can see his room is full of junk and I can see where he has been messing around my junk. (I first discover some evidence against him in a cabinet over a display of souvenirs I have. He has moved around my souvenirs in an insulting way too.) I also cannot remember what I did with my computer – whether it is missing too.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What happened to me or what did I feel in the dream?

Was it a friendly atmosphere or was there difficulty?

Do I have memories of being in a barrack?

Try using Characters and People in Dreams and Easy Dream Interpretation

Barren

This can indicate various types of barrenness. It can be the barrenness of childlessness which is not simple the inability to conceive, but can also be barrenness of mind, which does not allow anything creative to grow in one and give birth to it.

Example: Gradually, it became clear what had been causing the pain.

In every human being, I seemed to be told, there is a fire that burns, a creative fire. When that fire is permitted to burn freely, the human being is healthy and creative, whether he be farmer, artist, mother, workman. But when the fire is blocked, as it is by this pain, then the person is crippled, just as I had been crippled for most of my life. As a child, I had felt worthless because I did not have my brother’s masculinity and intelligence, nor my sister’s grace and beauty. And because I had felt worthless I had withdrawn into non-identity and non-feeling.

Later in life I had found one worthiness: a talent for acting. But I had used the talent as a means of escaping into the identity of the characters I portrayed, instead of searching to find my own identity. (Quoted from Myself and I by Constance Newland).

It can also suggests a conflict between the intellect and the non rational side of oneself. Usually it is the rational mind which is destroying a part of ones inner nature – or a fight between the extrovert and the introvert. The introverted side may have fallen and so will nevertheless intrude in fantasies, as fear of some insidious disease; in melancholy, which afflicts him when left to his own resources; in superstition, or some freak religion; in that total loss of interest and complete sterile introversion which overcomes many extroverts when they can no longer be filly active in the world. For the extrovert, introversion all too often actually is what he believes it to be-a neurosis.

Barrenness or sterility can also be caused by the pain of having no warmth in ones life. See Causes of Infertility.

Example: This led me to ask what he connected with the images, and he said it reminded him of his childhood and its restrictions and limitations. It especially linked with his grandparents and their rather cold and distant way of relating. He went on to talk about his parents, and how he could never get close, describing a rather sterile situation as far as his relationship with them. He told of waking in the mornings and having to remain quiet in his bedroom because he was not allowed to go to be with his parents.

Following from this Richard appeared to go very deeply into feelings that led him to cry from childhood pain. He said at the time and later what a relief it was to cry in that way. Witnessing that I wondered if the rest of the session would lead to such readily available and flowing experiences and insights.

Useful Questions and Hints:

In what way does barrenness show in my dream and my life?

Am I aware of it in myself or is it simple shown in my dream?

Was any way shown how to deal with it?

Try using Talking As and Processing Dreams.

Barricade

barricade We can barricade ourselves from thoughts, from emotions, fro actions from outside or from within.

Example: The change had torn that away, leaving her separated from everything she had known. It was a devastating feeling to have nowhere and no one to be connected to. Growing in her was an awareness that she could, out of the aloneness, commit acts of desperation, criminal acts to the degree she had never considered before. Connection and family had unknowingly given her a barricade against an internal riot that would hit out at others. With the barricade down, even though so recently, the internal mob were shouting angrily. Bess didn’t understand the fine points of this, she simply felt like something was crushing her from the inside, and she trembled, not from the cold. Quoted from The Steel.

Barricades can stop you getting away from something or stop you getting hurt, like barricades around a hole.

It can be the defense you use against others, or events – of something used against you. May be in the form of an excuse such as “I’m too ill to go to work, or I’ll never get anywhere, so what’s the use of trying”. Perhaps you live in thought only, a dried out travesty of living; for thought of things is never things themselves, however near it comes. So you can build a wall of thought about yourself, a barricade against the need to feel and experience – against living. See: Armour; Fence.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I aware of any barricades that I erect or meet in my life?

What can I do about going beyond barricades?

Are they a necessary part of my life?

Try Being the Person or Thing.

Bartender

bar tender This depends whether male or female. Also depends on your relationship with alcohol. If you drink frequently, then it possibly relates to the feelings that lead to drinking. Other possibilities are sociability; loneliness. See: Woman; Man; Roles.

It might also relate to advice given by the bartender or friends or drugs offered.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What happened in the bar and how is that relevant to me?

What was my relationship to alcohol in the dream? See  Alcohol.

What feelings or emotions were felt in the dream?

See Easy Dream Interpretation.

Base

The base of something is usually about what supports you or your activities. The condition of the base and its situation will indicate what the strength or weakness of you or your attitudes, beliefs, or confidence is. But the base of something also links with what is at the bottom of a situation, or what is lowest in importance or status.

The base may also indicate the beginning or root of something, the point where something started from. So the base of the spine for instance can suggest the basic instincts or responses, the lowest levels of awareness.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is your practical outgoing self secure?

Are you on a firm footing?

Is there any special significance of the base in my dream – if so how would I describe it?

Use Talking As to find out.

Baseball

See: games and gambling

Basement Downstairs

This part of the house is often used in dreams, and represents hidden motives, part of us that is barely known and so is often can the unconscious, so the unknown feelings, memories or past experiences, your biological past, and the place where your conscious mind contacts hidden powers, universal wisdom, and even other minds. Sometimes it means base deeds, low morals, underlying dislikes or traumas. It is from the basement, below, or within, that libido or life force arises. Fears and terrors sometimes come from downstairs. This is because it is the place we hide our old memories and hurts – in the unconscious. But it also holds the understanding of your wholeness. See Pandoras Box

It suggests what is unconscious or below ones usually level of awareness. Also may still have associations to do with ‘below stairs’ referring to what is beneath one or a lower class. Also in the cellar or basement one is near to the earth, the primordial forces of nature, what moves beneath ones ‘street level’ personality.

The basement can also link with what your present personality has been built upon, your past or family and cultural influences. If there are no walls to the cellar, or tunnels leading from it, it shows an openness or connection with influences beyond your own personality.

But it can be the power place, where so much of your life takes place – within you – in thinking, feeling and willing. It suggests what is unconscious or below ones usually level of awareness.

Also may still have associations to do with ‘below stairs’ referring to what is beneath one or a lower class. Also in the cellar or basement one is near to the earth, the primordial forces of nature, what moves beneath ones ‘street level’ personality.

Such a basement can in some dreams cause anxiety, but in others it offers a huge opportunity and many possibilities. It can be the place where hidden feelings can erupt such as anger, sexual longing, spiritual insight – anything because we are in the unconscious. See the unconscious and collective unconscious.

Example: It was a huge basement store, full of second-hand goods. My son bought some things, and pulled out four pound notes to pay. I asked him where he had got them from, and found he had stolen them. I was so angry I hit him with a poker, breaking his arm – or at least, I was frightened I had broken his arm. Having once hit him I wanted to go on and on hitting him, but struggled against this.

The spiritual can  be born here instead of in a stable.

Example: Was in a basement. My wife and a woman I was in love with was giving birth to a Baby, but I was somehow the one who gave birth to it, without a doctor being there. I remember my love chewed through the cord. I looked at the baby, it was a lovely boy. Its lower face was covered by a tight caul, but I pulled this off and it began to breathe. It opened its eyes and looked about, fully conscious. Then said something about Jesus, and, “It is gone!” The baby was then take an upstairs, and I felt it was a holy and wonderful baby. I was going to rest from the rigours of the birth, but on looking around saw how dusty and dirty the basement was. I began to clean it, and felt I would go upstairs and rest afterwards.

Example: What happened was that I seemed to go through the ground to what lies underneath. I don’t literally mean under the earth, but underneath people, underneath the events in life, what is usually hidden; only I felt it as like going into a vast place underneath everything. I understood that this was what is usually called the unconscious, or in past ages the underworld. In it I felt at the roots of all living things.

The first thing I saw was my youngest son. He was crouched just below the surface, unable to break through to the outside – what we call everyday life. This was a revelation because it explained so much about his behaviour. It showed me exactly what difficulties he was facing. Lots of people never get to even glimpse this hidden world of beings and energies, but my son had always known it and been held by it, almost like he had never been born from it. Seeing him at first deeply concerned me. But I understood that this was his life. Although it was difficult he would learn things denied to most people. He would know them instinctively because he was a native to this underneath world, the place inside us. So I stored the memory and moved on.

I found that I could think of anyone I knew and gain insights into what they were like inside. This was because this place, or condition I was in was like a space underneath a town. From here you could get into anyone’s house. You could touch the roots of trees and all living things, because they all emerged from here. My own sense of myself was different too. I knew without doubt that I had existed throughout all time. If I asked a question about the past, I knew just what had happened then, the whole struggle of humanity to grow, to meet itself. I knew because my central self had been a part of it all.

Then I came to what I called the Temple of The Animals. Again I have to describe it as a picture, a scene, but it was more like a direct knowing or experience. Here all that lived was gathered together. Not only as rank upon rank of animals in a great amphitheatre, but gathered in being linked as one mind, one spirit, knowing each other. So that when I walked into the temple I met this vast spirit which was as ancient as life, and had experienced all that life had done on this planet, and knew all the wisdom of its immense experience. And this Great Spirit looked upon me and knew me. It entered my own spirit looking to see if I knew how to love my mate and care for my children. It did this, as I understood it, because central to all that life had done in its many forms, was this great theme of self giving in caring for offspring and mate. It had learned how to love, and if I had not learned that lesson, I couldn’t receive the blessing it could give. As it was, it judged I had sufficiently learned the lesson of giving myself. Then I received the blessing of sharing a small part of its wisdom and ancient love.

A snake in the cellar or cave: Our psycho-biological drive; the energy behind our growth and motivation which includes sex drive. Often experienced as our emotional or feeling drive or zest for life. This connects us with awareness of our evolution as a person. See Snake.

Bad smell: Negative emotions which could cause depression or illness. See: house.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I harbouring unknown motives, fears or perhaps anger?

Are there things I am not letting myself think or feel?

Am I finding wonders or tragedy in the basement?

It is important to know how to work with what you find in the unconscious, so please read Important to Understand This and also Nothing Can Hurt You in Your Dreams – Super Heroes and Mythical Creatures

Basket

This has to do with the things we carry about with us, or the way we collect things in a psychological way. For instance one might ‘carry’ a grudge or ill feeling for years, and it is just as much of a burden as carrying a loaded shopping bag. We might also collect or carry information or ideas. We might ‘buy’ a suggestion from someone and carry it in this way until used or passed on.

The basket is often used to represent the vagina or the ability to bear children.

In trying to understand what the basket depicts it is important to consider what is in the basket, and whether that is the important part of the dream. After all, the basket might simple point to your ability to hold or remember experiences, ideas or feelings.

The word is occasionally used in English to mean a person who is a problem or irritating – she/he is a little basket. The phrase ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ also shows how it is common to associate basket with the idea of collecting or holding onto things that are valuable.

Cat/animal basket: Means of containing, restraining or dealing with ones reactive or spontaneous feelings or responses.

Carrying a basket to the shops: Looking for something; wanting something.

Full of food or goods: Plenteousness; abundance; good feelings or being a provider.

Empty basket: Sense of emptiness; lacking motivation; feeling impoverished.

Example: I was in a house with my mother, father and my son David. My son was not his present age, being about nine or ten years old. He was walking down some stairs leading to a basement, happily carrying a large bag of food, and a basket with milk and some other liquid in it. This was balanced on the sack, and as he walked down the wooden stairs I was behind him and saw the handle of the basket knock on the stairs. I thought it would fall and told David so. He was confident it wouldn’t. I made my point by taking hold of the handle and tipping the basket so its contents fell down the stairs, causing a flood of liquid to gush down the stairs. It looked as if the stairs had been washed clean, with some gravel as if a river had flowed down them. David was upset and told my parents I had tipped the basket. It probably would not have fallen if I had not tipped it. I felt as if I had betrayed David’s bright helpful attitude. The dream ended with my awareness of my father (now dead) being downstairs. Andy

In the dream, David is ‘carrying’ all the bright nourishing things he has collected, but is upset by his father. David is actually the dreamer’s positive, growing and happy self that he undermines and hurts by his critical and overbearing attitude.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is it I am carrying – and does the dream define this?

Is it the basket or the contents that are the main thing here?

What ability or attitude does my dream basket represent?

Use Easy Dream Interpretation to understand the dream more fully.

Basket-Ball

See: games and gambling.

Bat

Bat used in a game.

The flying bat is often associated with the devil or vampires, night or death. It is a creature that can see in the dark, lives in caves, and so is an aspect of unconscious inner workings, that go on in the darkness, or the part below our conscious awareness. But it is we who create this fear.

It can therefore represent thoughts or influences emerging from the unconscious, and can be wonderful rather than frightening. Being able to see in the dark – i.e. intuition. A such it can be felt as a fear of the unconscious. As such it can be felt as a fear of the unconscious. See Facing Fear.

The Australian aborigines see the bat as the spirit of death.

Example: I had a dream that I was playing tennis with a friend and suddenly a black bat attack on my neck and bit me and when I look at the ground there are unfamiliar animals that are crawling there and 1 man is sweeping all of the tiny animals. I ran in the house and 1 tiny blue bird follows me and I close the door. In my dream my house don’t have roof and I let the bird fly in the sky and I look at the poor animals being swept outside the gate like a leaves fallen from the tree. They are alive and they can move but it seems like they are afraid of the man. Then I was running outside like I’m playing hide and seek with someone and I enter another house and my relatives are with me and I met a guy inside the house and we went in a room and from window I saw my kids playing outside.

As can be seen from the dream, the bite of the bat brings about an enlargement of her ability to see and appreciate things.

Useful questions are:

What did I feel about the dream bat, and what part does that feeling play in my life at present?

Was there something I realised on seeing or dealing with the bat?

If there was fear, what was it about as base?

What is my dream bat doing in this dream, and what does that suggest about my own activities?

Try using Processing Dreams,

A bat used in a game:

: Male sexuality; positive aggression; defensiveness.

A baseball or cricket bat often appear in dreams as a form of confidence that you could deal with attack. But of course they are both also to do with expressed skill in dealing with the things life throws at you. A bat is an extension of your body and so expresses the timing, skill and expression you put into the game of life. See: games and gambling.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I using the bat as defence or as a skill in dealing with things?

Is the bat being used against me – if so how am I dealing with the situation?

What skill or lack of it is being shown in using the bat?

Being the Person or Thing can help you define the meaning of the bat.

Bat Bats – Flying

The flying bat is often associated with the devil or vampires, night or death. It is a creature that can see in the dark, lives in caves, and so is an aspect of unconscious inner workings, that go on in the darkness, or the part below our conscious awareness. But it is we who create this fear.

It can therefore represent thoughts or influences emerging from the unconscious, and can be wonderful rather than frightening; being able to see in the dark – i.e. intuition. As such it can be felt as a fear of the unconscious. See Facing Fear.

The Australian aborigines see the bat as the spirit of death.

Example: I had a dream that I was playing tennis with a friend and suddenly a black bat attacked on my neck and bit me and when I look at the ground there are unfamiliar animals that are crawling there and a man is sweeping all of the tiny animals. I ran in the house and a tiny blue bird follows me and I close the door. In my dream my house don’t have a roof and I let the bird fly in the sky and I look at the poor animals being swept outside the gate like a leaves fallen from the tree. They are alive and they can move but it seems like they are afraid of the man. Then I was running outside like I’m playing hide and seek with someone and I enter another house and my relatives are with me and I met a guy inside the house and we went in a room and from window I saw my kids playing outside.

As can be seen from the dream, the bite of the bat can bring about an enlargement of her ability to see and appreciate things.

Being scared of bats emerging can indicate real fears about traumatic events that you have repressed from memory. Films often use bats to suggest evil or feelings about vampires. So if you dream of vampires, it shows that you are dealing with a past event, probably involving a realtionship, which led you to feel terribly weakened.

Example: In the first dream, I was climbing a long flight of horribly rickety stairs in my father’s and mother’s house (that started as a church). I was terrified, and when I got to the top, I knew there was something horrible behind the door that scared me more than I could even say.

In the next one, I opened the door and all sorts of bats, ghosts, debris and STUFF flew at me from above.

The dreamer later discovered by exploring her dreams, that her father had sexually abused her.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What did I feel about the dream bat, and what part does that feeling play in my life at present?

Was there something I realised on seeing or dealing with the bat?

If there was fear, what was it about?

Try using Processing Dreams – Being the Person or Thing – Practical Techniques to explore their meaning

Bath Bathing

For many people the bath links with feelings of being able to relax and spend time alone without demands from other people. Therefore it indicates relaxation; cleansing; wanting to ‘come clean’ or be rid of guilt.

Such cleansing could depict a change of heart or forgiveness where old feelings are washed away. To do this you may need to cry or release and ‘wash out’ long held emotions.

But some bathing dreams or fantasies often depict the bath as a form or ritual which is getting one ready for something, perhaps a new experience, or the deepening of ones experience in an important area of your life, such as sexuality. Such an initiation might involve the meeting with your feelings or fears about relationship or your life situation – perhaps meeting your own male/female self more fully.

Bathing also includes nakedness, and therefore vulnerability, the revealing of your secrets or things you are sensitive or ashamed of. This might embody marriage/relationship intimacy.

If you are in the bath with someone then it can suggest being immersed in an influence of some sort; deep sharing, perhaps blending of qualities.

Some dreams show bathing as a powerful change or renewal and may sometimes relate to feelings about life in the womb.

Also: Need to cleanse the body internally. See: baptism, swimming pool.

Bathing in a river: Being open to flowing feelings and urges within yourself; allowing yourself to be influenced from within by urges toward change or growth or expansion of awareness.

Bathing in the sea: Being open to a more universal – less self centred – awareness of your relationship with life.

Jacuzzi: A jacuzzi is often a shared experience; or if it is a big bath like Japanese bath it can be like swimming pool, a shared experience. What is shared would be shown by the events and mood of the dream. Also it is a massage and so can be extra relaxing, or irritating if you do not like it.

Example: Now the imagery gets more specific and I watch/experience an exquisite Japanese ritual of meeting, touch, massage, that is leading to sex. Several young women are with me in a large bath. They are not trying to be directly sexual, but are getting close, touching me, massaging, allowing me to feel their flesh near me. The beauty of it is in understanding how wise and artistic the whole approach is. I see it is to lead my awareness out of being bound by everyday affairs. It diffuses concentration on particulars of external life and gradually opens my senses to feel and allow pleasure. It helps the mind to drop fixation on externals and allow it to drop boundaries until one senses oneself as in a semi dream state. This allows sex to be not just a particular thing; not just a physical penetration or being entered, but something that connects you emotionally and mysteriously with another person, and to the huge mystery that is that person and oneself. Ones partner is not simply a human being, but the very essence of the female principle, merging with the male principle. Graham H.

Useful questions:

Can I define my relationship with the bath and the outcome of this dream?

Do I experience any change in this dream, and if so what is it?

If I am being cleansed, what am I preparing for?

If I am with someone who am I with and in what way?

http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dream-interpretation-example-one/

Bathing Costume

See swimsuit-bikini

Bathroom

If you are from the USA going to the bathroom can mean you want to use the toilet, in which case see toilet – or maybe you need to wash or have a shower or a bath, in which case see bath/bathing.

Bathtub

See Bath

Battery

Ones resources of energy or vitality. Problems with the battery might depict health difficulties or even worries about heart weakness. But dreams are a magic mirror that reflects our inner state and world. So any worries may only be a belief you have about yourself, and if you are worried it is shown in your dream exactly what it is – a thought and emotion that is using you vital energies unwisely.

Example: In a dream I realised that I had often held thoughts and feelings of ill health or that there was something wrong with my body. I saw into myself and could see how these feelings caused so much harm to the workings of my subtle energies that support health, and I felt so sorry for constantly doing that to myself.

Computer/laptop battery: This connects more directly with accessing your talents, your memory, your links with others, and maybe your work more than a general battery. So it is important to define what part the battery is playing in the dream.

Flat battery: Suggests lack of motivation; a run-down condition regarding health or emotional energy; lack of resources or motivation. Sometimes it shows a lack of confidence in what you are doing, indicating the feeling that you are not capable or not sure enough of what you do.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the battery energising – a car a torch? Whatever it is look it up to see what is being influenced.

Am I feeling in any way like the energised or flat battery?

How do I recharge myself?

See Life’s Little Secrets and Exploring Your Dream.

Battle Battlefield

This suggests either an internal conflict such as caused by struggles with ones own emotions or sexuality, or an emotional battle going on with someone else. It may be something you are fighting for; feeling under attack about. The struggle may be between unconscious drives, such as an urge to have a baby, and ones conscious decisions.

Sometimes an internal ‘civil war’ takes place between ones head and ones heart or intuitions. Conflict can exist between emotions involved in making a decision or the carnage going on in one through childhood trauma or painful birth experience. One can also fight against the awful effect of fears and doubts; memories. Especially if you have been in a battle scene in waking life.

We also sometimes feel the struggle and conflicting emotions involved in making a decision as a battle. The carnage going on in oneself through childhood trauma or painful birth experience is often dreamt of as a battle ground. See What we need to know about dreaming.

Fighting against overwhelming feelings, or a struggle against your fears and doubts.

If you have been in a battle scene in waking life, then the dream might be a revisiting of the terror or feelings involved in an attempt to heal them.

Example: I had several previous dreams of being a soldier moving up to the front with my fellows. Tonight I dreamt that we were now at the front and were ready for battle. Then suddenly the signal was given and we were over the top facing the enemy.

The enemy the man was facing was his own fears and traumas from childhood. The willingness to be involved in the battle led to a breakthrough in which he relived a dramatic event from being in hospital.

Idioms: battle of the bulge; battle of the sexes; battle stations; battle your way through; battle ready; battle scarred; battle-ship.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I struggling with or in conflict with in my life or from the past?

Am I avoiding the battle or ready to see it through?

What is the battle about or who between?

See Life’s Little Secrets and Being the Person or Thing;

Dreams are Like Computer Games; Dream Yoga.

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Bay

Similar to beach, but the crescent shape sometimes depicts a woman’s sexuality and openness to mating; receptiveness. The bay is an area or environment in which you are near to the sea, suggesting awareness of your inner feelings and needs, or a closeness to what is natural. But the quality of this depends upon the condition of the bay. It might be a wonderfully light and attractive place or a place where boats are rotting and derelict. So this will comment on what is going on in you at the time of the dream. The bay is in most cases also a place to relax and be away from a work scene, so it offers opportunity to express in ways other than might be usual.

Boat sailing into bay: Something coming into your life; a new event or relationship. Arriving at a calmer situation in life, feeling easier because you are no longer ‘at sea’ about something.

Sailing across the bay: The passage of time or events; distance to travel, in the sense of covering ground in ones life.

Whales or other creatures in bay: Something important and deeply felt being realised or confronted. Usually this is about emotions or drives. See: Beach.

Idioms: At bay; keep at bay.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What expansive feelings have I encountered lately?

Am I changing my relationship with somebody?

Do I have a sense of opening to a wider awareness or pleasure?

Try Being the Person or Thing.

Bayonet

See: Arms.

Bazaar

Something we are hoping to find, or are looking for; making decisions about what we want – or the ways or difficulties in how we get what we want. The bazaar can also signify an unusual or exotic element of our desires, or opportunities that are unusual. See: shop.

It  an also signify great creative talent. Or it can be a pun – bizarre.

Example: I was visiting the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, entrance to which was through a bazaar lined passage. We were given knives to protect ourselves. The mosque was lit solely by a huge furnace at one end. Devils were jumping up and down in the flames. My companion said “The fires of the Apocalypse”. Some Turks said they would kill us if they saw us again.

The bazaar here is a sign of the unusual and creative aspect of the dream, the dream refers to the dreamers experience prior to birth – the long passage and the Blue Mosque. The rest of the dream suggests the dreamer has fear of dying and defensiveness strongly linked with this. I imagine this would make him afraid of women at a very basic level of relationship. Any closeness beyond the superficial could lead to fear of losing his identity – i.e. death.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Have I been seeking something unusual, or that I feel I can’t find in my usual environment?

What feelings do I have about this bazaar, and what does that mean to me?

Do the events happening in the bazaar have significance for me?

It night be helpful to read Near Death Experiences and Being the Person or Thing.

See: Shop.

Beach

Family gatherings or relaxation and intimacy. Intimacy means that this can be a place of love, of meeting and mating with an important dream character or real person.

It can also signify a state of mind in which you are open to intuitions and emotions; the state of mind which is open to pre-verbal experiences, such as life in the womb, but links with waking consciousness and everyday life. So a link between the enormous opposites of our life, such as the deep inner mind and unconscious and our waking self. See Ocean Sea

A beach is also a boundary, or threshold, between your individual self and effort, and your potential in the universal processes of life and death. Therefore a barrier or threshold such as fear or lack of confidence can create. To deal with such a barrier – crossing the ocean – we have to exhibit new skills or courage. To go further we would have to swim or take a boat – so a change may be needed, new qualities must be developed.

What we do on the beach may also depict how we deal with changing from one environment – school, work – to another such as parenthood or retirement. The beach might be the place where aspects of the previously unknown meet us – out of the sea. It thus illustrates how we draw on, or avoid our own potential, our own long past.

It is also a place where we are both seen by and see, other people. So may relate to socialising and meeting people.

The awe we feel when confronted by natural forces may also be depicted by the beach, therefore our relationship with life, the simplicity of life and standing between the forces of primal life and the social human world, both of which we exist in.

If there are anxious feelings in connection with the beach: This may show a feeling of being exposed to other people’s scrutiny, or to the powerful forces we face in experiencing our own emotions, sexual drive and social pressures. See: sea.

Example: My dreams have the recurring image of water, which for me usually means the ultimate spiritual place. Around the time of my divorce, I tried my hardest to get to the ocean, but in a series of dreams that went on for months, all my efforts were thwarted: in one, a storm came up, and we had to turn back; in another, I got lost; in still another, I made it to the ocean but I was with my mother and didn’t have a suit. In still another, all the beaches were private property. In the last dream I had before I quit drinking, I dreamed I was at the beach with a lot of strangers, and there was this lifeguard on the beach. But he was patrolling the people on the beach and not the people in the water. To get onto this particular beach, you had to leave everything behind and go down to the water’s edge with nothing–not your towels or radios or coolers or even your suit. Once in the water, you could swim just as far as you wanted and you were completely unmonitored. ‘A’.

In A’s dreams the beach and sea appear to depict the barriers to returning to, or achieving a meeting with her own simplicity – herself without all the clothing and trappings of social life and anxieties. It is a coming home to our source.

This aspect of the beach, awareness of the essence of human life, is shown in the following example and the dreamer’s comments on his exploration of the dream.

I am standing on a steep hillside that slopes into the sea. I look across the sea, and the air is so clear I can see the far coast twenty miles away with amazing clarity. In fact it is so clear it seems to me I can see every detail of a rocky cove across the water. The clarity amazes me and it seems the cove is only a few hundred yards away. It stands out with all its many colours. I find it so impressive I want to run back to get my camera. I hesitate from doing this though because I wonder if the scene will disappear.

I explored this dream many times but I could not get a clear insight into what the beach arose from in my experience. Then, with the help of a friend, I reached it. When I came to exploring the beach again, at first it seemed as subtle and unreachable as ever. Then I began to define what I was as the beach – a meeting place for water, earth, air and sun – earth, air, fire and water. But the beach is not any one of them. It changes with the seasons and with the action of storms, of erosion and temperature. It isn’t the air, or the sea or the earth. It changes yet stays the same – the beach. Suddenly I felt this in myself, saying, “I am not anything. I change yet am unchanged. I am all things but nothing.” This gave me a very powerful sense of my own eternal spirit underlying all the changes of my body and personality. Robert.

The beach can therefore also depict the spirit that underlies all things. This is because if you were to say what a beach is, you could not say the sea was the beach, or the sky, or the land. None of them separately is the beach. The beach is the indefinable amalgam of them all. In just that way the spirit is the indefinable everything that underlies the particulars of life.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I doing on the beach, and what does this suggest about my relationship with my own simplicity or connection with my core self?

What is the weather like, and is that indicative of my feelings about what life is presenting me with?

What relationships are indicated and how successful are they?

See Settings in Dreams and Talking As.

Bead Beads

A single bead might suggest isolation. While a string of beads could refer to your connection with other people. See: Ball.

Beads can represent linked events, memories of past events or people. Perhaps an attitude you use to help yourself feel more attractive or confident. Feelings connected with things you value.

Beads are often used for prayer in some countries, as in Greece, in Buddhism and with the rosary. So the bead or beads might represent your attitude of mind in prayer, or what you meet from prayer or meditation. They might therefore indicate precious things you find in yourself. See: jewels jewellery.

When used for meditation it could mean you are concentrating your thoughts and therefore making your aim more powerful – rather like magnifying glass focusing the suns rays.

Beads are one of the earliest forms of jewellery worn by women and men, and I see them as ‘women’s magic’. For instance if a woman saw a pretty stone and hung it round her neck it would attract attention and make her more noticed and desirable. The same applies to men also. It is a simple magic but effective.

Beads can also often be seen as representing past lives, and the image is often used when talking about reincarnation, that our present personality is simply one bead on a whole string of beads.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this simply an ornament helping me to feel more attractive, or is it something precious?

Are there particular memories connected with this?

Do I feel this is an ancient or buried object from the long past?

What do I feel or say if I imagine myself as the beads(s)? For help doing this see Stand in Role and Using your Intuition.

Beans

In past cultures beans were believed to connect the human soul to forces of the earth, and to the spirits of the dead – in other words to transfer your awareness to another realm.

For many of us beans link with a basic form of diet and sustenance, suggesting ordinary everyday life, suggesting ordinary everyday life and satisfied hunger.

A growing bean or beans suggest something that has a lot of growth potential and can also fulfill your needs. And a harvest of beans could mean that you are providing your and your family’s needs.

“Beans have been sacred food offered in rituals to feed and propitiate the dead. The Greeks considered beans to be symbols of transmigration of the soul and immortality. Beans also are believed to have magical properties, and have been used in exorcism rites to banish unwanted ghosts and spirits from homes. These underworld associations link beans in dreams to the unconscious”. Quoted from Dream Encylopedia.

The slang word ‘beaners’ suggests someone or something illegal or not wanted entering your life. See: food

There are coffee beans and cacao beans also, both of them powerful stimulants and enemies of sleep. In your dream they could link with the ability of awareness and stimulation of thoughts.

To quote from Our Dreaming Mind by Robert Van de Castle, “Cuna Indians, particularly with their neles, who serve as dream interpreters, physicians, and also oral historians. In fact, their cosmology presents a perfect set of metaphors for the multilayered nature of dreams. The Cunas believe there are eight levels of reality or existence beneath the surface of the land on which they live. One could thus vertically descend through eight levels of kalus, or kingdoms beneath the ground, to discover the source of certain dreams. I have observed neles inhaling cocoa bean smoke in their attempts to descend to these deeper “kalus, with the aid of their wooden nuchu dolls, which acted as assistants on their underground journeys.

Idioms: full of beans; spill the beans; a hill of beans; bean pole; cool beans; row of beans; string beans.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Does my dream suggest this is to do with basic ordinary life – if so what is it about?

If the bean(s) are growing, what do I feel?

Is there something magical about the beans and if so what?

Use Simple Dream Interpretation and Talking As.

Bear

Often people dream of a bear coming to attack them, but because all the images, people, animals, places we see in our dreams, are simply your own feelings, fears, hopes and wonder projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind as images, there us nothing to be afraid of. So, it makes sense to take the image of your dream person, thing or animal back into you and own it. In that way, you are actually meeting and dealing with the things about yourself you are not owning or conscious of. That is why dreams are often difficult to understand, because we are hiding things from ourselves. To do this you can use – Being the Person or Thing and it is helpful to read Levels of the Brain

Whenever we dream its images are not like real life, because a dream is nothing like outer life where things could hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen, so that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear; so, all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind. Also dreams exress in a very ancient language, language that developed in ancient life forms before ever words were invented. The ancient languge is one that has taught youngsters by for millions of years by watching what mother or father fox, bear wolf did – all without words. This photo says it all – the family of bears are intently watching what mum is doing. they learn by seeing it, no words were spoken.

So the angry bear is an image of your own angry feelings that have not been expressed and are attacking you. We now know that such inturned anger can cause illness or depression.

Example: A huge black panther chased me. I fell and it clawed my back. It was about to chew my back to bite me. I didn’t know whether to relax or struggle. After being floored by the Panther I managed to get up. I later imagined being the panther. I allowed the panther to eat me, and I thus became the panther. Then I, as the panther, noticed feeling enormous temper – anger – hate. And I was amazed to see that my cousin Sidney was the cause of such powerful emotions. He was older than me and had mercilessly teased me as a child. The panther was my own feelings of anger, at last released.

But here is a very different example:

Example: I was standing on my patio and there was a bear inside the fence also there were children taunting the bear. I yelled at the kids to stop teasing the bear. Then all of a sudden the bear came towards me; it was a brown bear with its massive size and it stopped and looked at me. Although I was frightened I was courageous enough to pet the bears head, reaching over his  large mouth to reach his head. Then, all of a sudden the bear lay on his back and I begin to brush my hand on his chest as to pet him in a downward motion, the bear just gazed at me.

A bear can have a similar meaning to elephant in the eastern countries – a tremendous force or energy, that if met badly can lead to conflict with your own nature and ill health, or if met well can be a tremendous protector and force for good.

Sometimes said to represent a possessive mother, and the feelings this has aroused. But in many cases the bear will represent a meeting with dangerous emotions such as fear, anger or being easily aroused. There might also be associations with independence, or strength. See: Dreams are Like a Computer Game; Animal.

Through television and the many ‘nature’ films which are now a part of our wider education, we can see that the bear is largely a solitary creature, capable of living alone and surviving. This, and its human way of standing and holding its arms out in a hugging posture, may be the major factors from which a ‘bear’ dream arises. In many dreams the bear is not at all harmful, and can be treated as a friend.

Through these we can also see the bear as a wonderful mother and protector.

We may therefore associate the bear with feelings about living alone or surviving by our own strength; it can refer to the confrontation with feelings we have about independence, or the meeting with strength and independence in someone else. It can confront us with massive or dangerous rage, such as ‘the bear with a sore head’. In this case it might represent your relationship with someone who is touchy or grouchy, powerful, possessiveness or smothering, as a parent or lover might be.

Also it might represent your relationship with someone who is a parent or lover; it could suggest a desire to withdraw or hibernate; the ‘animal’ side of our relationship with our parents; a play on words, such as ‘bare’, bare facts, bearing with something or someone, ‘bearing’ ones soul, bearing in mind, a ‘bearer’ of tidings, come to bear, overbearing, getting ones bearings, bear fruit or bear-hug.

If the bear is felt as aggressive and dangerous, ask yourself what in your own inner feelings do you feel is aggressive and you don’t want to let it get out into what you express. In other words. what is it that you habitually repress from being expressed –  your anger?

It is best to let the angry bear be expressed in you imagination. You can do this by being the angry bear and let  it loose – see – Being the Person or Thing

But the bear can also be like the Beauty and the Beast, in which the dangerous beast is tame with the influence of kindness. So the bear relates to person who can be kind, but could also be a dangerous when roused.

It could suggest a desire to withdraw or hibernate. Because of traditional cultural associations, and its ability to hibernate, the bear can represent the ability to die and be reborn.

As the bear rears its childrfen alone without any male about, if oyu have been in that situation it can reer to you.  But whateveer else it represent, remember that is an image of our relationship with our own ‘animal’ side. Please see  the following to understand this important feature – Mammal Brain

There can be a play on words, such as ‘bare’, bare facts, bearing with something or someone, ‘bearing’ ones soul, bearing in mind, a ‘bearer’ of tidings, come to bear, overbearing, getting ones bearings, bear fruit or bear-hug. Because of traditional cultural associations, and its ability to hibernate, the bear can represent the ability to die and be reborn.

Bear attacking: It could mean that you are feeling or dealing with anger in yourself or another.

But many people dream of being chased by a bear and maybe run in fear or terror from the bear. Not only in your own dreams, but other people’s, it is obvious that we take into our sleep and dreams all the fears, terrors we carry within us. The huge bear, tiger or frightening person they are terrified of is actually fears either inherited or are frightening experiences from the past. They are purely mental things that you haven’t faced, and are therefore the victims of – victims of your own fears. But in dreams in you cannot die – or drown, or burn or any other threatening thing. We make the mistake of taking our very real values from our outer life into our inner life of dreams. If a bear or critter is chasing you, it is only a dream image and so what are you running from? If you drop the image if the bear/critter what you have is a feeling or emotion such as fear. And why are you running like crazy from an emotion? Remember that nothing can hurt you in your dreams, but you can feel fear. See The animal in my dream

And do not think, “That monster is bigger and stronger than I am, and it is frightening!!” It is our thoughts and fears that create the monsters inside us. So of course you are stronger unless you cower in fear.

But that only refers to outer bears, not dream bears. In some northern towns a bear or polar bear can be a real danger, so in your dreams it may be about a threat you need to keep watch for – although it is a bear in your dream, it could be any threat.

It can also, like the following dream, show a fight against disease.

 Example: I dreamt that I was my older brother. As him, and yet at the same time myself, I was trying to fight off an attacking bear. I was doing all I could to defeat it but there was no let up.

Two days later my brother suddenly died from a vicious virus he had contracted while doing his job as a taxi driver. I feel as if I were fighting the disease with him in the dream, but we both lost the battle.

Baby or toy bear: Often represents a child or a young dreamer.

Tame or loving bear: Many people have no fear of animals in their dreams but are like the examples below. Fear is caused because we mix  up our dream life with our outer life.

Example:  In my dream I was actually happy to see bears lying down at the entrance of my parent’s old house. They were all lying down there as if waiting for me. When they felt my presence they woke up. They were happy and groaning amicably when they saw me approaching them. And there were babies too! I never felt fear or any threat but happiness to see them … and I knew it was mutual.

Example: My dream was not frightful. My Bear dream and I were walking, he put his nose in my hand and nuzzled, we walked home, I went up to my door and Bear went next door and rolled around in the neighbors driveway and rested.

But as people are educated in the modern paradigm, many of us are totally out of touch with the animal that we are, and have never been able to raise it to love and protect us, and instead are often frightened of it when it appears on their dreams. As a child we are often told not to do things – such as do not get angry, or told to be nice to everyone, but the intuitive animal side of us feels and act on its superior insight – that would allow them to mature with our animal self intact so we grow up repressing it, and often miss the natural curiosity of our inner mammal.

So if you have a loving animal dream you have a very good and healthy relationship with your inner animal. See Levels of the Brain and Summing Up

Three bears as with father bear, mother bear etc.: Family situation or parental relationship.

If hint of money in the dream: might refer to ‘bear market’.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What were your feelings and interactions with the bear? (For instance were you avoiding, running from cooperating with, watching from a distance – and where does ‘avoiding’, ‘running from’, ‘cooperating’, or ‘observing’ enter your life at the moment?)

If you imagine yourself as the bear in your dream, what do you feel and experience?

See Stand in Role; Processing Dreams; Summing Up

Beard

Male sexual power and virility. This depends on the age of the person and the situation in the dream. For instance stubble on a teenage boy suggests he is moving into manhood, or even to hide their adolescent acne. But a beard can also suggest carelessness – as when someone hasn’t shaved, or a mask if someone uses it to hide their youth. Or even a way of life that does not conform, or like a backwoodsman.

Sometimes the link is with a war veteran, suggesting a long exposure to conflict and extreme living conditions. I feel that a lot of elderly men grow a beard because they are not so worried about their social standing now and also because a feeling of tiredness about doing the ritual of shaving ever day. Many women feel that beards are a form of hiding or affectation, but they ought to try shaving every day, or in some cases twice a day. Shaving takes a slice of time out of ones life, and also whether electric or wet, shaving for some men leaves them constantly with sore of cut skin. See: Hair.

Example: Awoke in a girl’s room. She was there. I had a two-day growth of beard, and I went into the bathroom to shave it off, but didn’t manage to. Then made love to the girl, after spanking her. Felt great peace.

Here the beard obviously links with strong male feeling and sexuality.

Example: At that moment two young boys came into the room/area. They were like choirboys or trainee priests. One of them came straight to me and and my wife and sat on my lap, cuddling up like one of my own children. The man and I were emotionally stirred by such an open expression of needful contact and love. The boy appeared to be naked. I held him firmly in my arms. I felt strength in him and said, “I can feel the manhood growing in you.” I felt a noticeable increase of the strength in him. My hand touched his chin. There was a stubble of young beard there. I said how I was aware of his body growing into manhood. I was aware of us adults sharing the experience deeply.

This is an expression of soft love, and encouragement for the emerging youthfulness in the dreamer, and also the union of religious feelings into a wholeness. The dreamer had been held back in his actual expression of love and sexual feelings. The beard here shows the beginning of his development of his body moving toward manhood.

Cutting off beard: Making a change; feeling more certain about your manhood; or uncertainty about manhood, depending on dream. It can also suggest a fuller meeting or self expression, and uncovering of who you are. In some cultures it might suggest leaving behind traditional religious beliefs.

Very long beard: Sense of eternal or long life.

White beard: Wisdom or experience gained through long life, and perhaps an awareness of life beyond the senses.

Useful Questions and Hints:

How is the beard portrayed?

Could it indicate hiding something?

Does the beard represent wisdom?

What can you gather from the Plot of the Dream and also from Processing Dreams.

Beast Bestial

An animal of extraordinary power or a creature causing great terror is a feature of many dreams or nightmares. The figure may be partly human, or an animal which has strange characteristics, or perhaps it is a figure which never quite declares itself, remaining unseen but causing or projecting great fear. In some dreams the beast takes the form of a prehistoric creature.

When explored in any depth such dream images are realised to be an expression of powerful internal emotions, responses and drives which have in most cases previously remained unconscious. The reason for this lack of expression in conscious life is varied. It may be that painful childhood experiences created a block, or fear surrounding some basic drives such as anger, sexuality or self expression. Or maybe  you were raised to be afraid of certain ideas, creatures or even fictional characters. Therefore major areas of ones potential are withheld and become symbolised by the beast. That such a beast appears threatening and aggressive, or even bent on ones destruction, is a simple statement of the way we relate to the forces of our psyche that are bound up with it. For instance if we have been made terrified that our parents will desert us, the expression of our need for love may create this terror. So the beast, in itself, is usually not a thing of terror. The awful feelings are what we experience in connection with what it signifies. If you drop the dream image and look at the feelings underlying it you will get a better insight into your dream. See Animal

As this terror originally occurred in early childhood at a time when our developing identity was very fragile, or during later traumatic events, the force of such feelings are often life threatening as far as our growing identity was concerned. But similar repression may surround the strength of our own sexuality or basic driving forces. See What You Carry into Your Dreams.

As many of us are not at ease with our emotions and irrational urges, to meet this ‘beast’ may not be easy even as an adult. This would mean feeling the intensity of our childhood emotions and fears, reappraising them, and integrating the information gathered from such an experience. The information might well include insights into why we avoided certain life situations, or why strong feelings were evoked by seemingly simple events. The example below gives some small insight into this. The information is told by a woman who helped Margaret work on her dream.

Example: Margaret dreamt there was a whole lot of downy little feathers falling from the sky and covering her, like snow. The sky was full of them. She had been watching a baby eagle very high up in tree tops flying from tree to tree. She felt it was looking for it’s mother/ parents. Then a man had caught the baby eagle by a string around it’s leg and Margaret was appalled and said to him, ‘You can’t do that. You must let it go.’ Then the feathers started to fall and Margaret felt that any moment now the irate parent eagles would arrive. They didn’t but she was with her back to a wall sheltering as best she could.

While we explored Margaret’s feelings and memories connected with the dream symbols, she told me that her man friend prodded an old childhood pain which he didn’t know about. Margaret and her son had been with him and his mother for a good weekend camping. She told her son he could go play in the park while they packed the car and they would pick him up on the way out. They were all in the car and drove to where the son was and called him, he saw them and started to run towards them and then the man friend drove the car forward as if to make out they were leaving him behind. Margaret burst with pain and anger.

The underlying cause of this was that her own parents had split up and neither of them wanted Margaret to live with them. She had therefore been looked after by her grandparents. The event that crystallised her feelings occurred one day when her Grandfather had, on the Grandmother’s instructions, driven Margaret, who was 7 years old, to the edge of the town, told her to get out and started to drive away. This was because she wouldn’t eat her breakfast. She still carries the pain of that day. She told her father many years later and he was very angry with his own father for doing that to Margaret. She says – Anyway, it came out again when we were looking at the dream. The male friend grew up with an alcoholic father who has just died, but he says he hasn’t any trauma to deal with??

The theme of the beast is very important in women’s dreams, but may hold a slightly different theme than in men’s. This difference is illustrated by the story of Beauty and the Beast, in which a young girl meets and lives with a powerful beast. The story emphasises the girl’s relationship with her father as a counterpoint to that with the beast. It suggests that a young woman meets a different kind of love when she leaves the affection from and for her father. To become fully a woman and mother, she must discover the deeply animal urges which underlie the personality and social traits she has developed so far. These urges are not at all uncouth, but are certainly primitive. They open her to experience deep sexual longing, and the power to give herself with passion to her children and to her man. Thus she allows in herself something forbidden in her relationship with her father – an erotic and procreational love.

Overall the beast represents the forces in our personality out of which we emerge into social and intellectual life. Unless we make friends with our beast there may always be conflict in us between the rational and non-rational. We existed as a beast for millions of years before the sort of consciousness which led to personal awareness emerging. Self-awareness is still very new and vulnerable. It needs the greater depth and inner wisdom of the beast to survive. See: The Rock Beast

The beast in us has a healthy fear of much that goes on in today’s world. Fear is a guardian that protected ancient beast from uncountable dangers for millions of years. Although it appears like a great and ancient beast, it is full of mystery and magic. It has brought about living beings in incredible variety. It has possibilities we cannot even guess at. Within itself it holds the secrets of creation and destruction, of sleep and waking, of the intricacies of mind and spirit. It has unimaginable power and tenacity. It is beyond us and yet intimately of very core of self. We relate to it, we enliven it, we call it out or imprisonment by every act we do.

Here is an extract from the dream-work of a man exploring a dream about snakes which he feared would attack him.

Example: As I imagine myself to be the snakes I have a distinct feeling that for millions of years I have existed as an animal. As human beings we often reject the animal in us. I see the meaning of the snakes. The snakes are so powerful. They are urges in all of us, to be felt if we are not afraid of them. The urges they depict can become a part of our everyday life. A man is somebody who has all that power there but it is under control. I have been brought up to feel one is supposed to be meek and mild or something. It was not socially acceptable to growl a bit.

I am a mixture of a beast and this awareness of self. WHY? WHY? (I feel like a wordless animal which has just got awareness). Intellect is developing and can ask these questions but there is still the powerful beast here. Why has this happened to me? Why have I woken up from being an unconscious animal and become conscious? What is this all about? It feels like it ought to be a swamp outside the window now – or a jungle.

I am a man! What is a man? What is it to be a man? I really feel this isn’t a way to be. It is too strange to be a man. I am really something odd. It is odd being a man. It is frightening. I am not like the other beasts. The other beasts haven’t got this difficulty of self awareness. They don’t carry this difficult thing – self awareness. They don’t carry the difficulty all the time. Why should I be different? I don’t like it. DON’T like it.

There is something I am looking at which is to do with how human beings got to be in the situation they are in today. Part of it is this feeling of wanting to turn back – wanting to go back to being unconscious – to being asleep. A lot of them did it. They turned back. Hundreds and hundreds turned back. That was the story of Noah. Hundreds turned back because they didn’t want to bear consciousness. Huge numbers of people attempt it today with drugs or suicide because being aware is so difficult.

But of course many of us still do it today because they avoid meeting anything that personally faces them with their own childhood emotions or the animal that they are.

Useful Questions and Hints:

How am I relating to this beast, and can I change it by meeting or being it?

Is the beast trying to communicate with me in any way?

In what ways am I trying to escape from or defend myself from the beast – in other words what do I use to repress this in myself?

For help relating to the beast, see Stand in Role also see Acting on your dream.

Beating or Beaten Up

This is usually about your own difficult or angry feelings giving you a hard time. The saying, “Don’t beat yourself up’ is an excellent description of this. Sometimes the action of being beaten up occurs because we do not express or deal with the feelings in any way, or do anything to change our situation.

Here is an example of this:

Example: I dreamt I was attacked by two older youths who beat me up. I was left stunned and felt vulnerable.

On helping the man, now in his forties, to explore the dream, he found it difficult because he kept looking for a memory of being attacked by two youths when he was 13. He even asked his father if he had any memory of it. But it gradually came to him that there was something he was hiding from himself. It was that at thirteen he had an experience that terrified him and led to him stopping any sexual flow. As he realised this he wept as he saw how he had turned that enormous flow of energy back upon himself like an attack, an attack that destroyed the beauty of his proper youthful flowering. He remembered how, at the time he felt a great deal of anger, but it had turned inwards. Therefore he had dreamt of being beaten by youths.

Useful Questions and Hints:

If I remember that my dream is not a prediction or a memory of a past event, what can I see happening in myself?

If I remember the feelings in the dream and then see if I can recall any such feeling in the past, what do I end with?

Can I accept that I can or have beaten myself up by blocking my growth and energy?

Try Being the Dream Person also it can be helpful to read Dream as Computer Game.

Beautiful Beauty

A sense of beauty in a dream usually shows a feeling of harmony within oneself, a feelings of self value or being or feeling a part of society and life. Whatever it is in the dream that stimulates the feeling of beauty probably links you with great depths within yourself. If explored the wisdom or knowledge these depths hold becomes clearer. See: peer dream work; emotions and mood.

Feelings of beauty appear again and again in a multitude of dream places and situations. It takes some dream work to uncover this beauty that lies within us. It doesn’t matter what you look like physically for you are beautiful at your core. It is like dusting the sand and dust off of the beauty that lies beneath.

Here are some examples of people meeting their beauty.

Example: Totally without egotism but with deep satisfaction, I stated repeatedly, ‘I’m beautiful. No one else thinks so, but I really am.’’ Such feelings of admiration and awareness of beauty about oneself are often more direct, and arise as a sense of enormous appreciation of what has been achieved or met in your life. The admiration often results in feelings of love for yourself, which is very healing.

Example: Have I betrayed any?

Then I have betrayed Death.
And its face is beauty
For it is all things –
Naked,
Undressed of flesh.

Example: Then together we lifted off into the air in flight, and in front of the children performing the play we did the most beautiful and colourful aero acrobatics. As we did these we were able to produce coloured lights flowing from us. Then in the end I created a great ball of coloured light that I broke into angels flying in the air and descending to touch the watchers. Then again into the ball which shattered into tens of thousands of coloured and shining pieces that gently fell like snowflakes touching those watching and disappearing into them sharing the wonder and beauty I felt flowing through me.

In this way you discover the awareness of the Core or God part of you.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I realising or understanding from the felt beauty?

Is this in relationship with someone I know – if so what does this add to my feelings or knowledge of them?

Can I open to this beauty or is it threatening?

Try entering into your dream by using Acting on your dream.

Beaver

Is often associated with industriousness and independence. The beaver is also a great planner and builder, offering great protection and care to their young. The word beaver sometimes has sexual connotations – the sexual organs. If there is emphasis on the beaver dam, then it may suggest either conserving your energy and emotions, or holding back feelings, depending on the dream action.

In the Native American Indian traditions the beaver was often seen as a holy animal, and occasionally offered great wisdom to the dreamer. If the beaver speaks to you in the dream, it may be expressing innate or unconscious information or insights you have that are becoming conscious.

Because the beaver is equally capable underwater as well as above it, it can suggest bringing past memories, or thing that were not known or experienced into awareness

As a dream animal I am one with the Earth and all its creatures, so anything I learnt can be of great use. See Mammal Brain.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is there any suggestion of working hard in the dream, and how does that apply to me?

If the beaver communicated something what was it?

Am I gathering a deeper insight into the forces of nature in my life?

You can learn very personalised insights into your dream animal by using – Being the Person or Animal.

Became Become Becoming

This suggests a transformation. But maybe you haven’t achieved it or manifested it. This might be because you are  in a ‘because factor’. In many dreams something happens, fails to happen, or appears, because! For instance, trapped in a room you find a door to escape through. All is dark beyond and you do not go through the door ‘because’ you are frightened of the dark. In this case the because factor is fear. If this were your dream it would suggest you are trapped in an unsatisfying life situation through fear of opportunity or the unknown. Understanding the because factor can help you become aware of what is holding you back, or aiding your progress in waking life. So are you in a because factor and what is it?

Our inner radiance constantly tries to show us how to become whole, but becoming whole may take strength, surrender and trust. It may need us to face our own darkness and failings.

But we can become many things, like victims of our own fears or become sick in our soul, or even become a monk. So it is important to define what the message of the dream is. See main action in the dream.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What have I become or am I becoming?

Or what is becoming or has become – and what relevance does that have to me?

If it is a negative situation you can begin to change it by using carry the dream forward.

See Dream Yoga for some useful tips.

Because

See Because Factor.

Bed

There are many associations you might have with bed – rest, sleep, unconsciousness, sexual pleasure, relationship, dreams, escape from the world into sleep. Try to define what feelings or attitudes are involved with the bed, and ask yourself where they apply to your waking life.

This is an important symbol to understand. It often shows exactly what you are doing in the subtle areas of relationship. So can link with your close relationships, intimacy – an intimacy in which the qualities of the other can become part of you and a blending take place. Such a blending is not only that of you and another, but your known and presently formed self with what you hold within and latent.

But a bed is the place you sleep, so in a spiritual sense might be depicting your sleeping self, the parts of you still unconscious and not awake to who you really are and the issues needing attention in your life.

The bed also obviously relates to sexual pleasure, rest. the holy place in which we meet oneself and or another person deeply and passionately. But it can also suggest desire to get away from the world, to withdraw into oneself, to be passive.

Example: I have a two-pronged needle with red liquid. I know it will hurt him. I didn’t want to but I had to inject him. He yelled in pain. He turned on the bed, writhed around, and threw himself around. I snuck up and finished the dosage. He yelled in mock anger. He grabbed me. We tumbled to the floor. He started to make love, wildly, lovingly. Later at the table, an ugly woman with horrible eyes, glazed, hazy, and blue, came in. Said to him, “So there’s the louse.” I gave her a straight look. I said, “Just leave him alone!” Anger. She steadily looked at me. Another woman, possibly my mother watched the tense scene.

It can depict sensual rather than sexual contact; sickness; privacy; the testing place of the relationship. Sometimes it represents sleep and meeting our unconscious – or torture – because in bed we may be tortured by insomnia, worries, physical pain. See Bed Partners.

Our life situation – made your bed, now lie on it. Bed is one of the commonest symbols in dreams.

Bunk Bed: May link with childhood or sharing ones space. I guess if you slept in a bunk bed you will have many personal associations too. See Associations Working With

There a lot of mentions of bunk beds in my dream collection, but they all suggest a space in which children are on holiday or sharing. Only one has any mention of sex and that refers to unexpressed adolescent sexual desires.

Double bed: A relationship. The events that surround the bed image will give an idea of what the state of the relationship is. Sleeing alone in double bed shows either that you do not have a partner, or are not interested in having one. Or it could simple mean you enjoy your own space.

Top bunk bed: Usually in regard to someone who is top dog or you respects, like an older person. But some times to put the younger person on top.

Lower bunk bed: Easier to get in and out of. Your dog or pets find it easier to share with you. But depends what associations you have with it.

High Bed: Possibly relates to feeling either secure from things like mice on the floor, or anxiety about being high up. Height often links with either of these, or depicts a commanding position.

Hospital Bed: This is usually connected with healing, even though there may be some pain or scary bits in it.

Sometimes one dreams of a dead relative or friend in the hospital bed and they are alive again. This is probably a mixture of a real communication and the dreamers beliefs. See Symbols and Dreams.

———————-

In the example below the man is wrestling with his desire for pleasure and his sense of commitment; but also, whether he will keep his pleasure for himself, or share it with his wife. See: Example in contraceptive; bed wetting.

Example: ‘I sit on a bed. Near me, looking at a book I am holding is a woman I know, Jane. I realise as we talk that her foot is touching mine. As my wife is on my left across the room I feel uncomfortable about this. Now Jane has her left hand on my penis. I have only underpants on. The contact is pleasant and undemanding, but I feel more and more ill at ease. I feel Jane is not having any respect for my relationship with my wife and start to tell her so.’ Mr B. S.

Example: One day as I stood raging at the bars of my prison I suddenly realised that my years of shouting had availed nothing. The only person who was upset by it was me. I was the victim of my own anger and turmoil. It was as if I had been haunted all my life by ghosts of anger and passion. I dropped the attitudes or ‘ghosts’ and was free of them. Years went by and one by one I recognised and dropped other habits of emotion and thought that had trapped and tortured me. I realised I could be totally free within myself.

One morning I woke and sat up on the mattress on the floor that was my bed. The last ghost of inner entrapment fell away. A fountain of joy opened in my body, pouring upwards through me. It was so intense I cried out. My cell mates called a warden because they thought I had gone mad. They stood looking at me as I experienced radiance so strong I felt as if I must be shining. I was aware my joy poured into them, although they thought I was possibly insane. I could sense the enormous change in me influencing them, and I knew it couldn’t help but change them also. I realised that I might never be released from the prison, but it didn’t matter as I had found a fuller release than simply walking the streets. Even though remaining behind prison bars, I would still be touching people’s lives deeply. Nothing would ever be the same again.

The bed and the prison are very powerful symbols in this remarkable dream. The prison that he was in and felt he would remain in is his body, the source of and also the way of release from his entrapment. The bed that he woke from is the bed he had been ‘asleep’ on for so long – the bed of self torture and illusion.

Here is another example of bed from a very different viewpoint.

Example: I was in bed. There was a knock at the front door. Brenda answered it. I heard a scuffle and a man’s voice. He was assaulting my wife. She was struggling and said I would come, and the man laughed. I got out of bed and got my gun. I went into the room and rammed the rifle barrel in his face. Brenda got clear. He said I wouldn’t have the nerve to fire the gun, still slightly mocking. I said, “Wouldn’t I!” And swung the gun like a club, smashing it on his head. He ran out into the street and I threw the broken gun after him.

In this dream the dreamer woke up from being a rather passive person to being one who took charge of the situation.

Example: A headmaster called me into his study. He showed me a top to something like a small Buddha figure. I realised that it was mine from the long past, and I had lost it without even realising it. I tried to remember the details of having owned it, but could not. The headmaster did not give it to me. He then took me to a room with a bed in it. On the ceiling were marks from ejaculations. I then recreated the scene, and saw Les on the bed in sexual abandon. Then I was with an old lady in an attic. She was saying that she preferred people not to get friendly with her rather than be friends then leave her and hurt her. As she talked we seemed to get nearer and nearer, as if the words were on the surface, and underneath the words was an attraction to each other. In the end I went to her and we fell back on the bed together.

Again the body shows that the dreamer had forgotten and lost something precious and was unconscious of it. Les was his association with his sexual ability and he realised that was how he had lost the Buddha figure. At the end of the dream there are difficulties about relationship, but they are passed through.

Idioms: Bed of nails; bed of roses; go to bed with; make one’s bed and lie on it; test bed.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is there any sign of this being about relationship issues?

Is this about or hints of  sexual pleasure?

Is there indications of or desire for rest or escape?

See Ages of Love – Dream Characters – Simple Dream Interpretation.

Bed Partners

Bed Wetting

If one dreams of it but does not wet the bed: This is possibly to do with allowing yourself freedom of expression, but with worry about social condemnation or propriety. If not that, there may be anxiety that reduces you to childhood feelings with lack of self control over emotions. This dream almost certainly links with childhood feelings to do with control or lack of control of ones body and drives. This is a very powerful area of feelings, and can leave strong influences in the adult personality. To deal with it don’t worry too much about the symptom – the bed wetting – but deal with the feelings around control and losing control or maintaining control.

Bed-wetting, is technically known as enuresis. It is not unusual in children up to about three. After the age of three it is diagnosed as a disorder, but is not to be thought of as a serious condition. The NHS suggest it is not to be taken seriously until the child is 5. Up to fifteen percent of children continue bed-wetting to about five.

Adults often report dreams experienced in childhood that they dreamt of going to the toilet, and wake to find they had wet the bed. These dreams appear to serve the function of allowing the bed-wetting to take place. However, research opinion suggests that most bed-wetting is not accompanied by dreams.

Adult bed-wetting is usually caused by some form of physical disorder.

Freud felt that people who often dream of swimming “have as a rule been bed-wetters.” He also felt that dreaming of fire has “an underlying recollection of the enuresis of childhood.”

Dr. William C. Dement, founder of the sleep clinic at Stanford University, believes “Most treatments are ineffective, and generally only make the child anxious.” However, groups such as nobedwetting.com have worked out programs to help parents and children grow beyond this problem. But also see the NHS page on bed wetting see http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Bedwetting/Pages/Introduction.aspx.

Bedroom

This is an important symbol to understand, because bed is one of the commonest symbols in dreams. The bedroom often shows exactly what you are doing in the subtle areas of relationship. So can link with your close relationships, intimacy – an intimacy in which the qualities of the other can become part of you and a blending take place. Such a blending is not only that of you and another, but your known and presently formed self with what you hold within and latent.

But a bedroom is the place you sleep, so in a spiritual sense might be depicting your sleeping self, the parts of you still unconscious and not awake to who you really are and the issues needing attention in your life.

The bedroom also obviously relates to sexual pleasure, rest; the holy place in which we meet oneself and or another person deeply and passionately. But it can also suggest desire to get away from the world, to withdraw into oneself, to be passive.

It can depict sensual rather than sexual contact; sickness; privacy, and the testing place of a relationship. Sometimes it represents sleep and meeting our unconscious – or torture – because in bed we may be tortured by insomnia, worries, physical pain. Countless numbers of people need a sleeping pill in order to sleep. Or else they face the tortures of fear, nightmares and formless anxiety. These arise because the bedroom is a doorway to meeting the unconscious with all its hidden and unmet traumas and their pain and fear. It is a meeting with Life and is not in itself a fearful thing, but because we have been raised to forget that we are the products of the universe, of Life, Life which we avoid meeting, kill out any animals within us and outside of us, we grow into diminished people. We forget that it was not us, our ego, which created us, even as mothers we did not create our children, it was the process of Life that formed and nurtured us. We forget also that we are dual creatures, our conscious self only a tiny part of what we are, the immense  and huge part of us we have kept shut up in sleep, a mammoth part of us we avoid with enormous zest. See Reaction to the unconscious.

The bedroom is often a mirror of our life situation – made your bed, now lie on it.

Small bedroom: This might be telling you that you mate is not giving you enough space. Maybe you need time alone, or are unable to explore sexually with him or her.

In the example below the man is wrestling with his desire for pleasure and his sense of commitment; but also, whether he will keep his pleasure for himself, or share it with his wife. See: Example in contraceptive; bed wetting

Example: ‘I sit on a bed. Near me, looking at a book I am holding is a woman I know, Jane. I realise as we talk that her foot is touching mine. As my wife is on my left across the room I feel uncomfortable about this. Now Jane has her left hand on my penis. I have only underpants on. The contact is pleasant and undemanding, but I feel more and more ill at ease. I feel Jane is not having any respect for my relationship with my wife and start to tell her so.’ Mr B. S.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What feelings or associations do I have about going to bed?

Do I often experience fear in my dreams or in the dark?

How do you handle intimacy?

See Life’s Little Secrets – Sleep paralysis – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Edgar Cayce – Jesse Watkins Enlightenment

Beeper

A reminder or a sense of a communication with another person that hasn’t got through to you yet. An intuition of another person’s need for you. Something nagging for attention. It can also be an old means of seeking help or aid, but has now been superseded by the mobile phone/cell phone. See: mobile/cell phone.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What difference does it make in my dream if I am making or receiving a call?

Did I get an understandable message – if so can you relate it to your everyday life?

What feeling are felt in the dream and what does that tell me?

It will help to read Emotions and Mood also see Easy Dream Interpretation.

Beer

See: Alcohol.

Bees

Collective activity or working as or within a community, hard working or self sacrificing. The bee is not separate from its quest for nectar – in other words the bee is the whole wonderful connection between you, your work, the people you are connected with and the harvest of experience you gather from your life.

Because bees build fantastic egg laying colonies which the use to give life to thousands of life forms, I sense tha if you dream of bees working a hive, entering a hidden hive, or a swarm, it my be about your own cellular health in a positive way.

But because bees can sting you might be avoiding being stung – so avoiding pain, avoiding being stung by being taken advantage of.

If you dream of a bee stinging you it can suggest either that you have been hurt/stung in the past, or you are still reacting to being stung by someone’s hurtful remarks. Or else that you need to careful of hurting others with your remarks or criticism. But some things such as stinging remarks or even relationships tend to get under your skin, as in the following example.

It might also be a pun on being busy, busyness, business, or are you working yourself to death like bees do. Can be a “stinger;” a pun on “be-ing,” or beingness, “to be or not to be.”

Because bees produce honey there is a suggestion that bees can harvest a sweet and satisfying experience, and suggests what you have gathered from your life experience. honey

Example: I dreamt this morning that a bee found a crack or slit in the skin of my throat (right side of my neck below the ear) and worked its way in, burrowing itself beneath my skin. I didn’t see the slit, but it must have been there, however microscopically small, because it managed to burrow itself in there. It found an opening and worked its way inside the flesh of my neck. Next thing I know either more bees did the same OR the bee managed to reproduce itself inside me, because the mass on my neck grew larger like a large tumour. Inside I could feel the movement and buzzing of these live bees inside my neck, beneath the skin. I had a large lump on my neck, it was a mass of 20-50 bees growing and living there. Like a cancer that was alive and kicking, taking up residence.

Example: Later, in daylight I noticed a hornets nest in the side of the house. The next door neighbour’s son knocks it off and hornets enter the house and stung me. I angrily show the neighbour and son the huge watery swellings. I clout the boy for  stirring up the hornets. I had held my arms above my head and the swelling decreases. Now, with lowered arms I see a bubbling up of skin spread up my arms to chest, then to my entire front. I have no apparent sexual organs because I am covered in a wafer of dead skin. My wife looks at me and has no feeling of caring, and does nothing to help. She is telephoned by another man. I see him and her at the same time. He says for them to go off together, and gives the impression of how sexually adequate he is, and how inadequate I am. I feel so hurt and angry I decide to leave my wife for good.

Idioms: a bee in her bonnet; the bee’s knees; queen bee; honey bee; honey of a bee.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What do I know about Bees and how do I feel about them?

Can I recognise any signs of being hard working and self sacrificing?

How about the unconscious life processes going on in my own self?

See Being the Person or Thing – Avoid Being Victims

Beetle

Sometimes used a symbol of eternal life, of fate, or cause and effect. See Insects for a fuller explanation

Beggar

This represents the side of yourself that you may keep in the background. It is sometimes called the shadow or the parts of yourself that do not dominate. It might link with feelings or traits you are ashamed of, or with a sense of your own inadequacy – what is usually called lack of self worth. It might also link with the desire to ‘drop out’; to avoid involvement in society; or a cringing, passive attitude; passive anger; feeling poor in spirit – ‘low’. Or it may be a sense of being without talents or worth, of being an outsider.

In a few cases, a wise man lies hidden under the rough exterior who can tell you the secrets of your life and destiny. As such it shows the wisdom and strength gained by meeting the loss of all material support and social standing. See: archetypes of beggar; archetype of outcast and archetype of the shadow.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is there a part of myself I am denying in some way?

Why am I hiding this part of myself?

How am I relating to this character, and how might I improve the relationship?

Try using Talking As and Processing Dreams.

Behead Beheading

Literally about losing your head. This can mean that you are losing your ability to think and remember, or it can be a positive thing to lose all the wrong thinking and start anew.

It also means death of some sort, probably death of our personal beliefs. See head.

Because the head represents judgement and thinking the lose of head can sometimes mean memories of wrong judgements or traumatic events.

It can sometimes suggest that one has cut off or denied the body or vice versa. In a woman’s dream it might symbolise her difficult feelings about menopause or a midlife crisis where one feels the body has betrayed them.

Of course beheading can also depict self punishment due to childhood feelings of guilt.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Was it you that was beheaded – is so what was the experience like?

Did you die, and if so did you remain dead?

What feelings were involved and where have such feeling been felt in your life?

Try Acting in You Dream – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming

Behind

This can indicate the past, or something you are unaware of. Or it can link with something that was ‘alive’ and influential in your life at some time, but is now left behind perhaps like a seashell on a beach left behind by what was living in it. It might therefore link with someone or something being left, or a phase of your life that has been passed through.

Remember that dream images and actions are often only used to suggest something other than directly what is dreamt about. So seeing something behind something or someone or hidden behind something can relate to the dream.

Example: I dreamt I was aiming to get out of a house. I had a feeling it was deserted, and I was pulling my dad with me. My father looked tall and thin and rather worse for wear, so I had to support him – and at the same time I knew it was me I was pulling along. We had to pass through a room to get to the front door. As we entered the room I had a feeling it was haunted in some way – there was a sort of heavy threatening feeling about it. I got the door open to the front door but my father was gone – disappeared. In his place was a young woman about late twenties; so I caught her arm and pulled her out of the building.

When I explored the dream the result I got was – It was that the old deserted building was representation of an old way of life and attitudes I had lived in years passed – that was why it was deserted. The heavy atmosphere and haunting of the room was a hangover of depression and negative thinking I used to have that could still be felt at times. And my father/me was an attitude or view of myself I have at times, one of a worn out old man. I was in a hurry to get out of the building into the sunlit street. My father/me disappearing was that I had let go of that attitude, and the woman depicted opportunity.

Here is a clear illustration of how the person you dream about is often an aspect of your own feelings. Your father, lover, boy friend may be just representing your own feelings.

Some sentences taken from dreams show its many significance’s:

“But behind that was a need for a companion who would be with me in a particular way.” – “The UK is way up in the forties and fifties, so we are weeks behind you.” – “there are so many subtle things that we might be missing; many of us live very much in our thoughts or emotions, so are within the restrictions of a belief system, and dreams can illustrate dimensions of us that can leave those restrictions behind.” – “saw the baby and a voice from behind her told her.” – “now I hear a few people behind me saying that he is hear to collect the murder weapon.” – “came into my bed and said he saw a man behind the door.”

If this is your buttocks: See: buttocks.

If you are left behind: Feelings of not being as good as other people; feeling burdened with things that prevent you from being accepted by others; feeling you can’t keep up with what is needed.

Someone behind you: Something or someone that you may not be aware of and your dream is bringing it to your attention. It might suggest you are turning your back on someone or something. The person can be from the past; or they can be someone who is supporting you, backing you up, or that you gain strength from. See: Back.

Voice invisible giving advice behind you: This is very often the voice of your intuition speaking from a very informed position.

See: back; left behind; behind under positions.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is it that is behind, and what does this suggest is in the past or that you are not aware of?

What is it you are behind in, or how are you comparing yourself with others?

Are you now becoming aware of something that was previously out of sight?

Try talking as the thing or person behind. It can often be a revelation. Talking As and also Simple Dream Interpretation.

Being

You can simple exist without thought or motivation and so ‘be’. You can in a dream know yourself as another being, such as a different person, an animal or a different state of mind. Or you can become very aware of your present state of being and your possible future.

You can dream about a spiritual being, and that is you reaching beyond your normal self and experiencing, or the potential of experiencing a wider view of life and it purpose. Sometimes the spiritual being is now there are a form, but as a principle, a force or function in nature or the cosmos.

Example: I experienced something that I find difficult to describe. First of all I was aware of a being who lived without any apparent physical form and in the dimensions that I do not know. It was communicating with me, then suddenly it touched me. This was perhaps something like being electrocuted except that it was not at all painful or destructive. Every part of me seemed to vibrate as an enormous charge of influence hit me. I had no awareness of having a physical body because it felt as if for moments I was transformed into existing in a new way. During that period there was no need to breathe and it felt as if my being was frozen in a physical sense. I have no idea why that being touched me or what happened when that huge hit of energy was in me.

It then explained to me that because of what we humans are doing to the earth it was necessary to use some humans as channels for the passage of energy into the physical world. When it started communicating to me the things we were doing to the earth I at first thought it was going to lay blame on us and suggest we were causing a crisis. It seemed immediately aware of what I was thinking/feeling and communicated what felt like a smile, though there was no face or body to be aware of. Then it communicated to me that – my words – it was no big deal and they would deal with it. That the problem was not simply with what we were doing to the earth. The problem was that what we were doing brought the earth out of harmony with the rest of the solar system. I had some sense of harmonics in the relationship between the planets, and understood that the passage of energy through humans was to help balance the earth again in harmonic relationship.

Useful Questions and Hints:

How do you relate to the word ‘being’ and what does it mean to you?

Have you ever been in a different body or creature in a dream?

Does it ever happen that you meet beings not of our dimension?

Using the can help you find out more of the depths of your dream – Talking As and Processing Dreams.

Bell

A bell in your dream can be a warning, a signal or something calling for your attention. It might also be a summons, depending on its context in the dream. See Context Theme

A bell such as that in a church might indicate rejoicing; it might be a signal that someone has died, or suggestion of a wedding, originally a warning for the whole community, or simply a practice of bell ringing.

Occasionally in some dreams it is a reference to breasts which swing like bells. See Like Bells.

Telephone bell: Someone trying to get your attention or an attempt to communicate.

Doorbell: Something new coming into your life – negative or positive depending on dream; hoping for contact with someone.

The Final Bell: This suggests the last chance to do whatever the dream indicates. It is worth attending to it.

Diving bell: It indicates that you are ready to go into the deep unconscious – or are already exploring it. See Unconscious – What Is It ?

Ringing bell: If it is a door bell you are pressing then you are trying to get someone’s attention or trying to experience what is behind the door –  all of our fears, the devil, the angels. All that we place behind the door within ourselves. And they are only available to us if we walk through the door. See Pandora’s Box

If you are in the house and hear the door bell ring, it suggest an opportunity; the unexpected; new experience or relationship.

Idioms: all the bells and whistles; bells and whistles; clear as a bell; had his bell rung; hell’s bells; rings a bell; with bells on.